On Feb. 1, someone named "Ronald" posted a comment about a local businessman named Terry Beard on both the Portland Mercury and Willamette Week websites. Ronald's message "was Greek to me," the Mercury's Amy Ruiz writes, "but Terry Beard sure didn't appreciate it." He took both papers to court to get them to reveal the anonymous commenter's IP address. The papers' attorneys fought the motion, arguing that Oregon's Media Shield Law protects the information. The plaintiff's lawyer countered by contending that the shield law only applies to news gathering, not the passive reception of information. On Monday, Judge James E. Redman sided with the papers, and agreed that the IP address was protected under the state shield law. However, he noted that "if the comment had been totally unrelated to the blog post," then the shield law might not have applied.
Joan Conrow, who was writing a story for the Honolulu Weekly about an oceanfront home being built atop a Hawaiian burial ground, was initially charged with trespassing when she covered a protest at the construction site. But when she went to the police station to be arrested Wednesday night, Kauai Police Chief Darryl Perry told her to go home -- and then had prosecutors rescind the charges, according to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Perry says that after looking at the arrest warrant, he decided that the arrest raised First Amendment issues. "She was covered by the First Amendment," Perry says. Her presence "didn't sit within the criteria of criminal trespass."
The Buffalo alt-weekly had for months been trying to obtain meeting minutes and budget documents from a board charged with negotiating a merger between two area hospital operators. But the board claimed to be exempt from New York State's laws regarding open meetings and freedom of information and wouldn't turn over documents, so associate editor Buck Quigley joined a lawsuit to force the board to release them. On Friday, Judge Patrick NeMoyer ruled in favor of Quigley and the other plaintiffs on every count. Artvoice editor Geoff Kelly writes that, in addition to shining light on the board's activities, the ruling is "also a precedent: The next time a public/private authority claims to be exempt from New York State laws regarding openness, we have a court case to wave under their noses."
Some Republican senators are refusing to begin debate on the latest version of a federal shield law until the Senate addresses a bill that would promote more domestic oil and gas production, the Washington Post reports. The most recent iteration of the bill was introduced on Tuesday by Sens. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.). A similar bill was passed last October by the House of Representatives and the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Senate Majority Leader Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has included the Free Flow of Information Act on a list of legislation he hopes to complete before the August recess, Politico reports. The bill passed the House and Senate Judiciary Committee late last year. But with the Bush administration's opposition to the federal shield law, the bill still faces an uphill climb, as many federal agencies have fallen in line and written letters opposing the legislation. According to Politico, a major point of contention in the Senate regarding the Shield Law is how it defines "journalist" -- some senators are concerned that the definition remains too broad.
A bipartisan coalition of 41 attorneys general urged Senate leadership to quickly pass the measure in a letter (PDF file) that they will deliver July 8 when the Senate returns from its Summer recess, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. (Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott wrote separately to endorse the bill.) The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved the bill, and the House has already passed the companion bill. Broadcasting & Cable notes that the prospects for a shield law's passage "look brighter" than in the past, due to bipartisan Congressional support and the fact that both presumptive presidential nominees are co-sponsors of the Senate bill.
The paper had been named as a party to a defamation suit by former assistant commissioner for the Chicago Department of Aviation James Sachay, which alleged that political activist Frank Coconate had written a comment on one of the Reader's blogs and attributed it to Sachay. The Reader "argued in its motion to dismiss that it enjoys immunity under Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, which draws a distinction between a publisher that selects what to publish and the proprietor of a public web forum," Michael Miner writes. "This distinction holds even if the website provider makes some effort to police the site. (Someone here took down the offending comment sometime after it appeared.)" Last week the paper was dismissed as a defendant in response to a new motion filed by Sachay. His amended suit against only Coconate will continue.
A federal judge says the author and "Sonics Death Watch" columnist Sherman Alexie can testify for the city of Seattle in its trial next week against the Seattle SuperSonics, the Seattle Times reports. The team's ownership group wants to pay off the final two years of its lease at Seattle's arena and move the team to Oklahoma City for next season, while the city of Seattle is suing in federal court to force the team to fulfill the lease. The city's lawyers wanted to call Alexie because he's a season-ticket holder, a big fan and could discuss the team's importance in Seattle. Attorneys for the Sonics claimed he had nothing relevant to say, and had asked to get him off the witness list.
- Go to the previous page
- 1
- …
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- …
- 48
- Go to the next page
