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Freedom of Speech/Press News

Two Montana legislators sue author for fraud after revelations of falsehoods

donal brown May 10, 2011

Two state legislators are suing Greg Mortenson, author of a best-selling book about building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, asking a federal court to order the seizure of donations and proceeds from his book. The legislators’ lawyer said, The law says you cannot make misrepresentations, you cannot tell somebody something’s true and have them buy your book and make donations to your institute, when in fact it’s not true. That’s covered by fraud, deceit, unjust

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Free speech: Koch Industries loses case against nonprofit

donal brown May 10, 2011

Youth for Climate Truth (YFCT) created a website, www.koch-inc.com, and issued a fake press release from Koch Industries, a company that has challenged the science of climate change. The release stated that the company had agreed not to fund organizations denying climate change. Koch sued YFCT on a number of grounds including trademark infringement. The judge threw the suit out  saying that  YFCT’s activities were not commercial and therefore protected by the First Amendment, not

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California: Family sues Clovis school officials for slandering their son

donal brown May 10, 2011

After Jacob Fleener, on his own time and on his own computer,  logged onto a Facebook page with a parody of his principal, he was taken out of his high school English class to be interrogated by two district police services officers.  The school officials recommended transferring him to an alternative school and gave a letter to his father accusing his son of identity theft. The school officials later relented and agreed to rescind the

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Principal censors student journalist stories on arrest of teacher found in car with teen-ager

donal brown May 9, 2011

A Kentucky high school principal has blocked publication of two stories for the school’s online publication on the arrest of a teacher caught half dressed in a car with a teen-ager. Although the district’s code of conduct and student bill of rights says school publications are free from censorship and prior restraint, the school district spokesman said the principal acted appropriately to secure as district policy states, “the rights of others or the orderly operations

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Citizen who tweeted raid on bin Laden compound provides challenge to traditional definition of journalist

donal brown May 9, 2011

In GigaOM, Mathew Ingram says the Pakistan computer programmer in Abbottabad who live-tweeted the U.S. raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound deserves the label of “citizen journalist.” As mainstream journalists have done in reporting live events, the man answered questions, sought and shared news reports, traded what he knew with others to find out what was happening, and shared information and analyzed it. Ingram says critics who try to consign people like the programmer to

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