Tag Archives: lawyer

Comment Is Free: Meyer wrong to ‘pour scorn’ on Mosley, says lawyer

Dominic Crossley, whose firm represented Max Mosley in his case against News of the World, has responded to comments made by Sir Christopher Meyer, chairman of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), to a select committee for culture, media and sport last week.

Meyer chose to ‘pour scorn’ on Mosley and not the News of the World, despite the fact that Mosley won his case and a breach of privacy was found in his favour, writes Crossley.

“[I]nstead of criticising the News of the World or even warning those involved as to their future conduct (both the editor and journalist concerned remain in their roles), the chairman of the PCC reserves his scorn for Mosley. Meyer’s approach does nothing to relieve the perception that anyone seeking redress from a national newspaper is wasting his or her time by going to the PCC,” he says.

Full story at this link…

NY Blogger Three: issued press credentials but still pursuing legal action

Three days ago, three bloggers received press accreditation after suing New York City, following the Police Department refusal to give them press credentials because they work for online news outlets.

They have now been issued credentials after the police relented, the bloggers’ lawyer, Norman Siegel, has said (via NY Times City Room blog and Associated Press).

Rafael Martínez Alequin(Your Free Press), Ralph E. Smith (The Guardian Chronicle) and David Wallis (featurewell.com) lauched the action after being denied credentials in 2007.

Although they have now been issued press cards the bloggers’ lawyer, Norman Siegel told the NYTimes in a phone interview that the trio would still pursue legal action. The NYTimes.com blog reported:

“Mr. Siegel sad [sic] he was delighted with the outcome, but he vowed to continue the lawsuit, saying further reforms were needed.

Siegel told the NYTimes.com:

“This step recognizes that bloggers are 21st-century journalists (…)

“It’s an important first step, but only a first step, because we still need to address the constitutional problem of who gets press credentials in New York City. The Police Department should not be in the business of determining who’s a journalist.”

Though nationally reported there doesn’t seem to have been much discussion in the online journalism world yet (please do add links below, if you’ve picked up any interesting comments).

It’s an interesting case for the ongoing legal definition of journalist/blogger. In the UK, for example, Jack Straw has announced that some family courts will now be opened to the press. But how will press be defined when the changes come in?

As Journalism.co.uk reported on this blog in December, the definition of ‘journalist’ has not yet been clarified…

Malaysian court orders newspaper to reveal online commenters

A court in Kuala Lumpur has ordered the editor of Malaysian online newspaper Malaysia Today to reveal the identity of commenters, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has reported.

Editor Raja Petra Kamarudin has also been told to remove three articles after libel proceedings were brought against him by lawyer Datuk Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.

Abdullah is suing the editor over the articles and comments, which claimed he was responsible for ‘trumped up charges’ in a recent lawsuit against a politician in the country.

RSF has condemned the court order and has called for its withdrawal.

“The court order is invalid as it is only effective in Malaysia and Malaysia Today is hosted on a server in the United States. This should be taken up with a US court,” the organisation said.

News&Observer.com: News&Observer reader sues title for staff cuts

One of the paper’s readers is suing the News & Observer in North Carolina following a series of staff cuts and reductions in news pages.

Lawyer Keith Hempstead filed the complaint stating that the changes had breached the paper’s contract with him.

links for 2008-06-30

Twitter round-up: Twitter for sale and twittering for freedom

Andrew Baron, founder of videoblog site Rocketboom, put his Twitter account on Ebay (thanks to WinExtra for flagging this up). If you think that’s weird, it gets stranger – the bids apparently rose to $1,550 before Baron pulled the auction.

Not sure what’s worse: the potential that this was all a publicity stunt (I realise I’m giving it more) or that people were willing to bid so much. Baron wrote on the auction site:

I really love my Twitter account but I feel like I haven’t been using it the way I want to. Quite honestly, I feel sorry for all of my followers because they wind up with my tweets in their timelines and I haven’t been able to utilize the medium the way I want to. I also participate in another Twitter account over on Rocketboom so I’m thinking I’ll post more over there and start up a new account to do what I want to do next.

It would be silly to just delete this account I have here, especially if there is someone out there that had like interests and had something to say or wanted to get involved in some relevant conversations. In terms of monetary value, I have no expectations or needs at all so I decided not to put a minimum bid on this. Whatever will be, will be.

It seems to have worked publicity-wise: Baron’s followers have jumped from 1397 when he started the auction to 1,755 at last count.

Elsewhere, a Californian grad student used the microblogging service as a get out of jail card.

The site InsideBayArea reports on student James Karl Buck, a former multimedia intern for US newspaper the Oakland Tribune, who when arrested by Egyptian police used Twitter to send a message that he had been arrested to his network.

His contacts just happened to contain several anti-government bloggers – it’s part of a project for his graduate course – and helped him then secure a lawyer, contact the US Embassy and alert international media. Not bad for a tweet.