Blog Law Online

The revelation that the U.S. Department of Justice used records of Fox News reporter's James Rosen phone calls, e-mails and security badge access to the State Department and named Rosen as a co-conspirator in the a case against accused leaker Stephen Jin-Woo Kim has combined with the revelation of subpoenas for phone records of the Associated Press in another leak investigation has led to a tizzy in the mainstream media. The government's actions have been called "outrageous," "overreaching," "unconstitutional," "Nixonian" and "stupid."

(cross posted on the blog of the Counts Law Group)
The revelation that the Justice Department obtained cell and landline telephone records of several Associated Press reporters, and Attorney General Eric Holder's admission that he was "not sure" how many other searches of reporters' phone records he had approved since taking his position in 2009, is a reminder to journalists, politicians and lawyers -- and perhaps a revelation to many of them -- that reporters may not have as much legal protection for their sources as they may have thought.

Hawaii and Wyoming don't have a whole lot in common, but they will soon be the only two states that do not recognize any sort of privilege for reporters to protect confidential sources. (Forty states have shield statutes, while courts in nine states recognize the privilege in some form.) Wyoming has never recognized a reporters' privilege, but Hawaii will lose its reporters privilege on June 30, when a shield law adopted in 2008 expires.

A panel of academics (including my friend Mark Pearson of Griffith University) has issued a report commissioned by the Attorney General of the Australian state of Victoria on the issues involving jurors' use of social media, including recommendations for dealing with the issue.

A Florida trial judge has held that a blogger qualifies as a media defendant under a procedural rule that requires five days notice before filing of a defamation lawsuit. De Rosas v. Johnson, No. 2012-32919-CA-01 (Fla. Cir. Ct. 2013). The ruling, which is not available online, was reported by Law360.

(cross posted at the Citizen Media Law Project)
There have several recent developments which mark a milestone in the evolution of social media platforms: their acceptance as mainstream forms of communication, on equal footing with older forms of communicating official or "important" messages.

(cross posted at the Citizen Media Law Project; a related article on this topic appears in the Gateway Journalism Review)
I've already written several posts about the overblown predictions that a ruling involving an Oregon blogger (now on appeal) would have dire consequences for bloggers in that state. But a recent decision by Iowa's Supreme Court on who can be considered "news media" under Iowa law may truly endanger bloggers and other online contributors in the Hawkeye State.