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Digital Journalist's Legal Guide
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Everything online journalists need to protect their legal rights. This free resource culls from all Reporters Committee resources and includes exclusive content on digital media law issues.

News

Format: 2013-05-24
Format: 2013-05-24
U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear challenge to Texas Open Meetings Act, sealed records challenge
March 26, 2013
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear arguments about the constitutionality of the criminal sanction provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act, ending the long-running legal battle over a statute that prohibits government officials from talking about public business in private. The Court also declined to hear a case involving a First Amendment defense to a penalty for disclosing sealed records.
New York judge says I.D. law used to arrest photographers is unconstitutional
March 25, 2013
A federal judge ruled that a New York City police officer was wrong when he demanded identification from two men photographing a vintage train because the relevant law regarding identification was unconstitutionally vague.
Judge rules news clipping service infringed Associated Press' copyright
March 22, 2013
Online news aggregation websites that compile and resell news stories without the publisher's permission are committing copyright infringement and are not protected under the fair use doctrine, a New York judge ruled.
Steven Tyler Act stalls in Hawaii legislature
March 21, 2013
AP Photo Steven Tyler, left, and Mick Fleetwood, right, testify about an anti-paparazzi bill. Tyler's lawyer, Dina LaPolt, center, drafted the bill.   The Hawaii anti-paparazzi bill pushed by rocker Steven Tyler has lost momentum in the state House of Representatives after flying through the Senate earlier this month.
Filmmaker cannot obtain trial recording, Mass. high court rules
March 20, 2013
Massachusetts’ highest court ruled Monday that a documentary filmmaker cannot access an audio recording of a controversial rape trial because it is not an official judicial record of the trial.
CIA must acknowledge records of drone strike program, appellate court rules
March 19, 2013
The CIA cannot refuse to search for records about U.S. drone strikes on the grounds that acknowledging the existence of the records would harm national security, the U.S. Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C. ruled.
Photographers associations admonish Biden's office for ordering deletion of journalist's photos
March 15, 2013
Despite the prompt apology issued by the Vice President's press office to the University of Maryland journalism school for deleting the photographs of a journalism student covering an event with Joe Biden earlier this week, the White House News Photographers Association fired off an admonishing letter Thursday to the press office and sought a meeting to ensure that it does “not ever happen again.”
Fox News reporter subpoenaed in James Holmes case
March 14, 2013
A New York judge has signed a subpoena requiring a Fox News reporter to testify in Colorado about who gave her confidential information about a notebook James Holmes sent to his psychiatrist days before he allegedly opened fire on a crowded movie theater last July, killing 12 people.
Third Circuit concludes articles about Virgin Islands judge's bail decisions not libelous
March 12, 2013
A retired Virgin Islands Superior Court judge was unable to prove that a reporter had malicious intent when writing articles that he believed defamed him, according to a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia (3rd Cir.). The decision on Friday affirms a ruling by the Virgin Islands Supreme Court dismissing Leon Kendall’s defamation claims against the Virgin Islands Daily News and one of its reporters.
Appeal proceeds secretly in Gray campaign investigation
March 8, 2013
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington issued several secret orders in a completely sealed case this week, as part of an investigation into D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s 2010 campaign. The case involves a probe into businessman Jeffrey E. Thompson, as reported by The Washington Post and other media sources. Thompson is alleged to have run a secret campaign for Gray, without abiding by campaign-finance disclosure laws or revealing the campaign to the public.
Justice issues letter supporting photojournalist arrested for taking pictures of police
March 7, 2013
The Department of Justice issued a rare letter supporting the constitutional rights of a photojournalist suing Montgomery County, Md., police officers who arrested him for taking their pictures while on duty. The Justice’s Statement of Interest issued Monday urges the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland to uphold citizens’ constitutional rights to record police officers in their public capacity without being arrested or having the recordings unlawfully seized.
Duke University drops subpoenas to lacrosse-scandal blogger
March 4, 2013
Duke University has withdrawn subpoenas seeking communications between a college professor who wrote about the North Carolina school's lacrosse scandal and the student athletes following an appeals hearing last week. Duke lawyers dropped the subpoenas Friday before U.S. District Judge D. Brock Hornby could rule on whether a lower court’s decision to enforce the subpoenas should be overturned in Maine, where the professor lives. A lawsuit against the university stemming from the lacrosse case was also settled two days prior, making a portion of the subpoenas moot.
Judge erred in sealing court documents, Va. Supreme Court rules
March 1, 2013
In the first decision ever in Virginia to address the issue of moot arguments, the state Supreme Court decided Thursday that a judge incorrectly denied a local newspaper access to trial exhibits in a 2011 child murder case. The justices also ruled that the case was not moot despite the fact that the contested documents sought by the Newport News Daily Press were released to the public two years ago.
FBI to release records on secret informant Ernest Withers
February 28, 2013
As part of a settlement agreement between the FBI and a Tennessee newspaper, the bureau must release documents and photos that are expected to confirm that famed civil rights photographer Ernest Withers was a confidential informant during the civil rights era. Withers died in 2007.
Dismissal of N.Y. journalist's libel suit against critic upheld
February 26, 2013
A New York appellate panel upheld the dismissal of a defamation suit filed by a journalist against a prominent AIDS activist who criticized her articles about the disease.