NewsSerge Menard, a Bloc Quebecois MP and former journalist, has proposed a shield law to protect the identities of journalists’ confidential sources. Bill C-426, introduced on April 17, 2007, would amend the Canada Evidence Act to restrict when a court can order a journalist to name a source. Those seeking to expose a source would…
NewsOntario’s Ministry of the Attorney General is restricting access to court documents that reveal the name of an alleged victim of a sexual offence, citing a 2005 Criminal Code amendment that forbids the “transmission” of a victim’s identity. But Brian Rogers, a Toronto lawyer who regularly acts for the media, says a court order should…
NewsAn Ontario judge has imposed a publication ban that prevents a group of terror suspects from exposing the conditions they face in solitary confinement. The men want to have their habeas corpus application heard in open court, and legal experts say the public deserves to know whether they are being detained “legally and by the…
CommentaryA pair of recently filed defamation suits have the potential to reshape free speech on the Internet in Canada, Internet law expert Michael Geist warns in this Ottawa Citizen commentary published on May 1, 2007. A British Columbia businessman is suing a who’s who of the Internet, including Yahoo!, MySpace and Wikipedia for allowing users…
CommentaryHow much information about Robert Pickton’s murder trial is too much information? Tony Burman, editor in chief of CBC News, comments on the public backlash against media coverage of graphic evidence being heard in a New Westminster, B.C. courtroom.
NewsIn many countries, it is a crime to insult public officials or any individual, group or religion. The World Press Freedom Committee has launched a campaign to eliminate this extreme form of defamation, used by many regimes to stifle press freedom. Read the committee’s press release.
NewsThe judge presiding over Robert Pickton’s murder trial has instituted a “sensible and practical protocol” to allow journalists to apply for access to exhibits. See the Vancouver Sun report.
NewsIn a move hailed as a step toward greater press freedom, Mexican President Felipe Calder??n has approved amendments to decriminalize libel, slander and defamation. Mexico joins El Salvador as the only two Latin American nations to wipe criminal libel off the books. Read Editor & Publisher‘s April 17, 2007report.
NewsVideo blogger Josh Wolf was freed on April 3, 2007after spending more time behind bars for contempt than any other American journalist in recent history. The 24-year-old, whorefused to comply with a grand jury subpoena for his testimony and video outtakes, spent 226 days in a California prison. Read the Reporter’s Committee for Freedom of…
NewsBritain’s House of Lords has refused to review a landmark ruling that has been criticized for protecting privacy at the expense of free expression — and could restrict how journalists cover celebrities and public figures. The March 30, 2007 decision endorses a lower court’s finding that a former friend of Loreena McKennitt breached the Canadian…