First Amendment News

Relations between North Korea and the United States have worsened after two American reporters were seized and tried after crossing the border from China and North Korea on March 17. The reporters are thought to be pawns in the struggle between the United Nations and North Korea over the country’s nuclear tests. -DB Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press June 8, 2009 By Caitlin Dickson Two American journalists were sentenced to 12 years hard

The Berkeley Daily Planet June 4, 2009 By Richard Brenneman A small group of East Bay residents are waging a campaign against the Berkeley Daily Planet for publishing what they call anti-Semitic criticisms of Israel’s policies and actions. The Planet itself has not assumed an editorial stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but occasionally runs letters and commentaries from Berkeley residents, most of which are critical of Israel. In an investigatory report on the activities of

A prison who wrote a vulgar note to a prosecutor on a piece of toilet paper found that the federal appeals court did not consider it within the bounds of protected speech under the First Amendment. -DB Houston Chronicle June 8, 2009 By Michael Graczyk HOUSTON (AP) — A vulgar note written on a piece of toilet paper by a Texas inmate and sent to a prosecutor is not constitutionally protected free speech, a federal

Security experts warn that as Obama makes government data more accessible, it is imperative to improve data classification and information management so that sensitive but unclassified documents will not get into the wrong hands. -DB Computerworld Analysis June 8, 2009 By Jaikumar Vijayan The Obama Administration’s push to make government data more open and easily accessible is elevating the need for standardized data classification and information management approaches across federal agencies, security experts say. Without

When the federal government adds more federal stats to its online data base, it will come with clickable tags that will allow citizens to search related content. -DB NextGov June 4 2009 By Aliya Sternstein A comprehensive online warehouse of downloadable federal statistics is expected soon to add clickable tags that allow users to search and catalog related content, the White House chief information officer said on Thursday. “We want to be able to get