Category / Law and ethics

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UK libel law stifles free expression

Commentary Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz, one of the world’s richest men, has made an academic publisher withdraw a controversial book. But it is the UK libel system that allows the rich and powerful to stifle investigation, writes Padraig Reidy, news…
How Conrad Black used libel chill as a weapon

CommentaryThe principal legacy of disgraced media mogul Conrad Black, convicted in July of fraud and obstruction of justice, is “libel chill,” writes Toronto Star business columnist David Olive. For decades he used libel writs to neuter coverage of his activities.…
Journalism’s other road

Buried in the despair of a U.S. media-industry roundup — to which it devotes an extraordinarily long and justifiably depressing introduction — the Columbia Journalism Review presents some interesting ideas about non-profit journalism. Excerpts: “Never has there been a…
The upside of Harper’s press restrictions

NewsOttawa (July 30, 2007) — One year after relations between the Parliamentary Press Gallery and the Harper government hit rock bottom, some observers see signs that restrictions on media access to politicians is forcing journalists to dig deep and produce…
Proposed U.S. shield law moves forward

NewsAug. 1, 2007 – The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee has voted in favor of an amended federal shield law that would protect newsgatherers who derive “financial gain or livelihood” from journalistic activity, including freelancers and advertising-supported bloggers. The…
Online, all the time

American journalist Seymour Hersh has much to say In a Q&A interview about the Internet’s impact on journalism: “There is an enormous change taking place in this country in journalism. And it is online. We are eventually — and I…
Students challenged to be journalistic innovators and entreprenuers

An American journalism professor has just received a huge grant to provide seed funding to news start-ups developed by students in his entrepreneurial journalism class at City Univeristy of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism. Jeff Jarvis says the money…
Klein and the National Post

“Paying an Author and Putting Her Down” is a report in the New York Times about Naomi Klein’s odd appearance in the National Post. The Post paid for the rights to run excerpts of Klein’s recent book and thus aided…
Armstrong and the rabble-rousing journalist

His editor figured him for a “rabble-rouser and liberal,” but Larry Lubenow knew a good story when he heard one. And so he quoted Louis Armstrong when the jazz legend finally spoke out on race relations — and helped change…
FOI audit shows gov’t still keeping secrets

By Fred Vallance-JonesWhen I sat down to crunch the raw data from the third annual CNA FOI audit, I hoped against hope that I’d discover a marked improvement in performance by Canada’s federal, provincial and municipal governments. Alas, I…