bloggers

Electronic Frontier Foundation provides support for bloggers seeking access to government

Stating that “people who do journalism are journalists,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation is fighting efforts of government bodies to deny local bloggers, sometimes called “hyperlocals,” the rights and status of other journalists. The EFF’s “Legal Guide for Bloggers” provides information about the right of access to public meetings and records.  -db From a commentary in Street Fight Magazine,  May 29, 2012, by Brian Dengler. Full story  

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PBS’s MediaShift lists eleven top stories in media law for 2011

MediaShift’s top media law stories for 2011 include journalists’ coverage of Occupy movements; the proposed online piracy legislation; net neutrality; coverage of live police actions; Righthaven and the “hot news” doctrine. -db From a commentary in MediaShift, December 23, 2011, by Rob Arcamona, Jeff Hermes and Andy Sellars. Full story

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Ruled not a journalist, Oregon blogger loses $2.5 million defamation suit in federal court

A blogger who wrote critical articles about an investment firm lost a $2.5 million defamation suit to the firm after an U.S. District Court judge ruled that she was not a journalist so not under the protection of the Oregon media shield law. She could not therefore withhold the identity of a source needed to verify the one statement that the judge found libelous. -db From a commentary in Seattle Weekly, December 6, 2011, by

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Bloggers’ ranting style protects in free speech cases but may hurt in other realms

Bloggers may win victories in defamation cases since their heated critical commentary is easily identified as opinion rather than fact and not libelous, but the advantage may have a serious down side, writes John Sharkey for the Citizen Media Law Project. Sharkey is concerned that in ruling for bloggers in defamation cases,  judges are making disparaging  comments about blogging, saying in one case that “blogs are a subspecies of online speech which inherently suggest that

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