First Amendment News

An Iranian appeals court altered the charges and reduced the sentence of an American journalist jailed for five months in Iran on spy charges. She was free to leave Iran but barred from working as a reporter in Iran for five years. –DB Washington Post May 12, 2009 By Thomas Erdbrink and Kay Armin Serjoie An Iranian appeals court freed American journalist Roxana Saberi on Monday, three weeks after the 32-year-old former beauty queen was

Disregarding Obama administration promises for transparency, the United States Trade Representative has failed to release details of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. Many fear that the agreement may institute customs regulations on Internet traffic in the guise of anti-counterfeiting rules. -DB Electronic Frontier Foundation May 6, 2009 WASHINGTON, D.C. – Two public interest groups today called on the government to stop blocking the release of information about a secret intellectual property trade agreement with broad implications

California state legislators are sponsoring a bill against SLAPP which they say is used to deprive citizens of the right to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances. –DB Business Mirror May 10, 2009 By Fernan Marasigan MILITANT legislators have filed a bill seeking to prohibit the filing of lawsuits against them and their groups to “protect their right to freedom of assembly, speech and of the press.” Party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo of

Opinions varied as Congress and media representatives assessed the future of journalism, focusing mainly on how to make the internet profitable. –DB Citizen Media Law Project May 8, 2009 By Kimberley Isbell “Where do we go from here?” In the wake of the demise of local papers like the Rocky Mountain News and the well-publicized battle between the New York Times Co. and the Boston Globe’s unions, this question has increasingly been on the lips