Media outlets have filed an amicus brief in support of a drone hobbyist facing a $10,000 fine for using a drone to make a promotional video, Gigaom reports. The media companies argue that the Federal Aviation Administration is violating the First Amendment by banning the use of unmanned aircraft for news photography.
Read the full brief here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/222414475/NYT-Et-Al-Amicus-for-Drones
The federal government is opposing New York Times reporter James Risen's request for the U.S. Supreme Court to consider his case, which could have profound impact on media law and the amount of protection reporters have for their confidential sources, Politico reports. The Fourth Circuit ordered Risen to testify about his confidential sources in the federal prosecution of an alleged leaker. Risen was subpoenaed regarding his sources for his reportage about a CIA effort to undermine Iran's nuclear program.
Law professor Geoffrey R. Stone, writing in the Daily Beast, said having an evidentiary privilege for journalists' sources is key to democracy. The point of the privilege is that confidential sources will be incentivized to reveal information to reporters without fear of retaliation and exposure, Stone says. It's good for democracy "to gain access to information that otherwise might never see the light of day" because wrongdoing will be exposed more, he says. Congress should enact a federal shield law even if it means that lines are drawn on who qualifies as a journalist and what information is protected by the privilege, he concludes.
Alabama blogger Roger Shuler was released last month after he spent five months in jail for refusing to delete allegedly defamatory posts about a lawyer and the son of a former Alabama governor, Reporters Without Borders reports. Shuler finally asked his wife to remove the articles in order to get out jail, but his release is conditional.
Reporters Without Border said that the court order "'constitutes prior censorship. It is unacceptable that this blogger has had to renounce his freedom to inform for the sake of his physical freedom.'"
The Fifth Circuit has rejected a newspaper's appeal against revealing identifying information about people who posted anonymous comments on its website, The National Law Journal's Mike Scarcella reports. The Times-Picayune has to disclose the information to a federal magistrate judge to review confidentially. The issue has arisen in the prosecution of a former New Orleans official. The defense alleges that the two anonymous posters are federal prosecutors. The newspaper's counsel said in court papers the order "implicates the important First Amendment right to engage in anonymous speech," the National Law Journal further reports.
The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a petition of certiorari from the Delaware Court of Chancery to consider reinstating secret arbitrations in corporate litigation exceeding $1 million, The Legal Intelligencer's Jeff Mordock reports. Lower courts said the law violated the right of the public to access court proceedings.
President Barack Obama's administration had its worst year in transparency since he took office, the Associated Press reports: "More often than ever, the administration censored government files or outright denied access to them last year under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, cited more legal exceptions it said justified withholding materials and refused a record number of times to turn over files quickly that might be especially newsworthy, according to a new analysis of federal data by The Associated Press."
The implications of a decision by an administrative law judge that the Federal Aviation Administration can't impose a $10,000 fine for the commercial use of a small UAV, or drone, is overstated, C. Andrew Keisner, an attorney writing in TVNewser, says. The FAA will likely proceed to create binding rules for drones under the Administrative Procedure Act, and it is "risky for advertising & media companies engaging UAV operators to enter into any long-term contracts that assume the FAA will not proceed with making whatever binding rules it deems necessary to regulate UAVs," he says.
Even though journalist and activist Barrett Brown won't face charges of identity theft for sharing a link to hacked "records documenting improper and potentially illegal activities by the U.S. intelligence contractor, Stratfor Global Intelligence," his prosecution on other charges still threatens press freedom, the Electronic Frontier Foundation argues. Brown apparently shared the link to the Stratfor files with a team of other journalists to crowdsource the review of the records, EFF says.
Federal prosecutors may have decided to press charges against Brown because "Brown admitted to being a heroin user and threatened an FBI agent and his children in a semi-coherent video posted to YouTube. (This happened after the FBI charged Brown’s mother with obstruction of justice for failing to produce Brown’s laptop.) Brown still faces charges for this threat in a separate criminal case, as well as charges of obstruction of justice for concealing evidence. However, Brown’s arguable lapse of judgment does not excuse the government for bringing specious identity theft charges against him for the simple act of sharing a link," EFF further argues.
Brown's continued prosecution threatens press freedom because journalists may not pursue stories on government and corporate wrongdoing out of heh fear that they could be prosecuted for crimes based on newsgathering, EFF concludes.
The Connecticut General Assembly is considering a bill called the "look, listen but don't copy law," which would allow public access to homicide photos and 911 tapes to review them but not necessarily to get copies of them, the Connecticut Post reports. Family members of crime victims could cite an unwarranted invasion on their public privacy to block release of the records, then putting the onus on the public to show that there actually is no invasion, the Post reports.
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