Iowa Retains Media/Non-Media Distinction, Leaving Bloggers Vulnerable

(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.

A Student Gives Me a Cameo

I was mentioned yesterday in an article in Capital New York, courtesy of one of my students.

Through the Looking Glass

I mostly focus on American law, but I was interested to read photographer Antoine de Ras' explanation of how he got this photo of amputee athlete and now accused murderer Oscar Pistorius crying in a South African courtroom, despite the judge's order that no photography was allowed during the court proceeding (although photography was allowed in the courtroom before and after the hearing).

I Speak on Social Media in Court

I was pleased to participate in yesterday's symposium on "The Use of Social Media in 21st-Century Litigation," organized by the American Journal of Trial Advocacy at Cumberland School of Law.

I Leave Reno, and Make the News

Several months after I left Reno, I've made it on the news there. (This seems to be a pattern. A few weeks after I moved from New York, I was quoted in The New York Times.)


KRNV (channel 4) interviewed me for a story on a Reno girl whose photo was posted on thedirty.com, a web site that features user-posted photos of people and insults about their sexual activities.

New Jersey Blogger Invokes Shield Law

A New Jersey blogger is the latest to fight a subpeona for information based on the claim that she is not covered by the state's shield law.