January 2011 Archives

Thomas-Rasset faces million-dollar damages; judge shuts down LimeWire

Silha lecturer Paul Smith urges justices to find state law unconstitutional

Meanwhile, the Pentagon and the C.I.A. sue authors over books

Righthaven pursues bloggers and other Internet users who republish content

Media sought ways to report on controversy without perpetuating it

Journalists are skeptical about government solutions

Rulings in two foreign courts--the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and the Canadian Supreme Court--favored journalists' rights to protect confidential sources in fall 2010.

Judges from the U.S. Supreme Court to Minnesota remain divided over issue of access

As the Bulletin goes to press, Julian Assange, the founder and editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, is in custody in the United Kingdom. He faces extradition to Sweden to answer questions regarding alleged sex offenses. Assange, his lawyers, and his many supporters claim that the charges are simply a pretext to silence the controversial distributor of thousands of classified documents, including, in late November 2010, embarrassing U.S. embassy cables.

E-mail 'metadata' is public in Washington; recordkeeping rules apply to social media for federal agencies

On Oct. 4, 2010, President Barack Obama signed House Resolution 5924, the SEC Freedom of Information Restoration Act, into law. The new law repeals § 929I of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which had exempted the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from complying with certain Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

Police keep reporters out; utility company cites security concerns in withholding records

The midterm elections of 2010 saw a variety of issues involving media ethics and law: lawsuits and threatened lawsuits over campaign ads, a reporter detained by private security guards, and a revived discussion about whether reporters and other news commentators should make political contributions.