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Opinion: WikiLeaks needs special recognition and protection

donal brown May 25, 2011

WikiLeaks would be at a disadvantage should it find itself in federal court trying to withhold the identity of a source since it does qualify for reporter’s privilege according to criterion laid out by a federal court of appeals in 1998. The appeals court said to qualify, a person must be practicing investigative reporting, gathering news and from the outset intend to disseminate the news to the public. In an op-ed in Wired, Jonathan W. Peters acknowledges

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A&A: The board reached ‘a unanimous decision’ but also claimed ‘no action was taken’ in closed session

FAC May 25, 2011

Q: I am a director of a charter high school who was recently put on administrative leave (via an email that stated it was by unanimous decision of the board) following a closed meeting at which they announced “No action was taken.” I do not understand how no action could have been taken yet there was a unanimous decision of the Board. There have been multiple Brown Act violations by this board but this is

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California company agrees to remove block to gay educational websites

donal brown May 24, 2011

Under pressure from the American Civil Liberties Union, a California software company agreed to remove a web filter blocking public school students from access to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender websites. Removing the filter allows over additional 6 million students to check out the sites. Suzanne Ito wrote in an ACLU commentary that the public schools are violating the First Amendment in using the filters, “Because public schools cannot engage in viewpoint-based censorship, any public

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Palin biographer under investigation for ethics violations

donal brown May 24, 2011

Frank Bailey, a former aide to Sarah Palin, is under investigation in Alaska for writing a book critical of Palin using thousands of e-mails from her 2006 gubernatorial campaign, her run for vice president in 2008 and her brief tenure as governor. The Alaska attorney general  is investigating Bailey’s use of the emails under laws that prohibit former public officials from using information acquired during their work for personal gain if the information is not

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United Kingdom: Courts battle social media in flap over soccer star’s alleged affair

donal brown May 24, 2011

A British soccer star obtained a court order forbidding the traditional news media from publishing details of his alleged affair with a “Big Brother” contestant, but the effect 0f the injunction waxed small in the wake of some 75,00o weekend postings about the affair on the social media. The judge stubbornly reaffirmed the need for the injunction to protect the soccer player’s privacy, but the prime minister said in light of what happened in this

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