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.
Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the ranking officials on the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Monday promised Congressional hearings to seek more information about the FBI’s improper efforts to access reporters’ phone records.
A Salisbury, Md. police chief settled his defamation suit against a blogger there this week, reportedly on "non-monetary" terms.
Salisbury Chief Allan Webster's case was due to go to trial Wednesday when blogger Joe Albero announced on his Web site, sbynews.blogspot.com, that the matter had been resolved. Albero did not disclose the terms.
The outlook is grim for a proposed shield law in Massachusetts, with two days left in the Legislative session and no sign it's headed for a vote, The [Quincy] Patriot Ledger reports.
While several lawmakers told the paper the Massachusetts Free Flow of Information Act could make an 11th hour move out of the judiciary committee before the session adjourns Thursday, other watchers of the bill have given up.
The federal shield bill stalled in the Senate today as supporters failed to get enough votes to end debate and force a vote on the measure.
The bill has garnered broad bi-partisan support from both houses of Congress. The Senate Judiciary Committee passed the measure in early October by a 15 – 4 vote. Two weeks later, a similar bill passed the full House of Representatives 398 – 21.
A federal judge in California ruled Thursday that Washington Times reporter Bill Gertz will not have to testify about confidential sources who may have given him leaks of grand jury information.
According to the New York Sun, Gertz invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to avoid answering questions in court.
Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and Attorney General Michael Mukasey sparred over the proposed federal shield law Wednesday during Mukasey’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.
Pence, responding to Mukasey’s comment that the shield bill represents a “solution in search of a problem,” instead categorized the proposal as a “response to a rising erosion of our First Amendment freedom of the press.”
A Pennsylvania judge quashed controversial subpoenas yesterday, deciding that 15 reporters summoned in a grand jury leak probe will not have to testify about their sources, the Associated Press reported.
An Oregon videographer is off the hook after prosecutors backed off their bid for unpublished segments of a tape he shot at a rally, which they had planned to present to a grand jury, according to The [Eugene] Register Guard.
A independent videographer says he will not comply with a subpoena in a grand jury investigation into possible criminal activity at an Oregon pesticide rally.
