Online media to reveal their sources. Print media unaffected
Sunday, March 13th, 2005 - 12:35pm
Quote:
Yesterday's court ruling in which companies can force on-line journalists to reveal sources could have a dramatic impact on the world of on-line news.Consider the ramifications, the ruling states that a company (such as Apple or Microsoft or whomever) can demand that a website that has broken a story about something that was confidential (or under NDA) has to reveal its sources to that company.
This is something that print journalists don't have to worry about. Two years ago, when someone leaked that the wife of a white house critic was working for the CIA, the Washington Post journalist was not required to present who his source was. In other words, even when it potentially affected national security, journalists weren't forced to reveal sources.
However, on-line news sources, such as Neowin, could face having to reveal its sources to any corporate entity that deems the information on the site to be confidential.
This ruling, if it stands, could give immense weight to corporations who want to control what information is provided from news sites.
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I really hope this gets appealed. The judge made no ruling on weather or not bloggers were journalists or not, just that since they were publishing stolen information, they weren''t entitled to protection under the law from Apple''s subpoenas.
This seems sort of anti-productive from Apple''s viewpoint. If they succeed, and no-one can print information about Apple''s upcoming products anymore, won''t they have far less enthusiasm and demand for their products?
Obviously, this case is very different from the Valarie Plame case. However, if Apple can force a journalist to give up their sources due to violating their trade secrets, I fail to see why the courts have no yet compelled Robert Novak and others involed to give up their sources in the Plame case.
The problem is the Apple case is in civil court. Has anyone tried to sue to get the sources in the Plame case?
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I was a journalism student for a while... but I don''t really know how I feel about this... we only had one situation where hiding a source was necessary... and also brought up a little bit of prior review. I thought it was funny how one person was ready to defend our rights to the hilt instead of making sure our source didn''t lose her job or get discredited. THAT I don''t agree with... but... I definitely see the importance of the free press and allowing journalists to secure their sources from harm.
That said... some people need to learn to keep their damn mouth shut. If they KNOW they''re going to get in trouble for it, they shouldn''t be talking. Duh.
"Just remember that sometimes you need to allow problems to just roll like water off of a duckilama's back." ~Reaper
But what if getting in trouble would be for the better good. (I''ll assume you will say go for it but just in case.)
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Depends on the better good. If we''re talking a few cents off taxes versus a woman''s job security... the well being of her family for losing that job security... etc... I''d gladly pick the woman over the common people... especially if most of them wouldn''t notice the difference anyway. There is of course one''s good versus the public''s good... but there''s also the degree of good for each.
"Just remember that sometimes you need to allow problems to just roll like water off of a duckilama's back." ~Reaper
In my local news, The Fresno Bee, our local ABC and FOX news affiliates, all cited ""unnamed"" sources to pretty much assassinate the character and ultimately lead to the firing of our Fresno State Women''s Basketball coach.
The majority of those times, those unnamed sources were never corroborated with actual, named (and checkable) sources.
Personally, that right there is something that needs to be addressed.
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