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.
An Oscar and Emmy nominated filmmaker and journalist said she was detained by the Department of Homeland Security when trying to re-enter the United States last week after traveling in Great Britain, renewing the legal debate over electronic device searches at U.S. borders and their implications for newsgathering.
Federal officials recently detained another journalist and photocopied the contents of his laptop computer and other electronic devices as he returned to the United States from assignment overseas. Meanwhile, the U.S. government has asked a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of such border searches.
Alternative journalist Amy Goodman was delayed by Canadian border officials last week while they questioned her about whether she intended to discuss the upcoming 2010 Vancouver Olympic games -- and not her latest book -- at a public library in Vancouver, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
The Obama Administration has taken a first step toward restricting the laptop search policy that subjected journalists' confidential information to scrutiny by border officials, but in the end still defends the practice.
The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol's controversial practice of randomly searching laptops upon U.S. entry quietly began last year but has quickly drawn attention, including a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed this week by the American Civil Liberties Union for records related to the practice.
