The First in USA: A Blogger Jailed

Jeff Jarvis of the Guardian Unlimlited blog reports a case that might be the first of its kind in the USA: a blogger jailed by a US federal court for not handing over sources or source materials for a story. A case that–according to him–”will raise no end of questions about the rights, responsibilities, and protections of citizens acting as journalists.”

I myself wrote a few posts here and here regarding whether a blogger deserves to be called a journalist and– hence deserves the same rights and protection.

Even if you agree to regard blogger as journalist it still has its own problem, says Jeff Jarvis:

But if the internet allows anyone to publish, then who should get such protection? In Congress and the courts, arguments are ensuing over whether bloggers are journalists. I say that’s the wrong argument. Journalism isn’t defined by who makes it (and, in fact, trying to do that is a dangerous attempt to certify journalists, giving authorities the means to decertify them). Journalism is an act. I say that if one journalist’s act of reporting is covered, then all must be. And the journalists are not necessarily opposed. At a symposium on this topic, New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller said: ‘The NY Times should be exceedingly humble about trying to decide who and who is not a journalist since we meet the test … and it feels like pulling up the ladder behind us.’ Still, he wasn’t sure which bloggers should qualify.”

Read the full story.

This entry was posted on August 29, 2007 at August 29, 2007 and is filed under Blogger Indonesia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.