This ruling emerged when Crystal Cox, a blogger, was accused of defaming Obsidian Finance Group and its co-founder Kevin Padrick on her blog. She posted that Padrick acted criminally in a federal bankruptcy case. Padrick sued and the court found that Cox was not protected under the state’s media shield law.

This decision has implications for bloggers around the country.

Since there is no legal definition for “the press,” this court ruling is one of the first to explicitly say that bloggers are not the media. This comes only a few short months after a federal court ruled that anyone, including bloggers, may legally record public officials, including police officers. The ruling said:

[C]hanges in technology and society have made the lines between private citizen and journalist exceedingly difficult to draw. The proliferation of electronic devices with video-recording capability means that many of our images of current events come from bystanders with a ready cell phone or digital camera rather than a traditional film crew, and news stories are now just as likely to be broken by a blogger at her computer as a reporter at a major newspaper. Such developments make clear why the news-gathering protections of the First Amendment cannot turn on professional credentials or status.
[Page 13 of the Slip Opinion from Glik v. Cuniffe]

While the Glik case was a victory for citizen journalism, the Oregon ruling is a failure to recognize the drastic changes occurring in the journalism world. Current technological advancements have made the line between citizen journalists and mainstream media harder to define. This is beneficial not only to anyone who produces news but also news consumers as well.

Many forget that when a newspaper goes under, it is not only those reporters who have lost their jobs that are affected. And when a local newspaper is forced to downsize their staff and product, there is a gaping hole in their news coverage that the consumer is losing. Entire communities are left without news coverage and left without access to vital information.

Stepping up to fill the void left when a local newspaper cuts back or closes are citizen journalists. They have proven that it no longer takes press credentials or a New York Times business card to break national news. Citizen journalists have captured government scandals and discovered injustice in their state capitols. They do the same job that the “mainstream reporters” are doing without either a pay check or fancy office.

Citizen journalists are providing a valuable service to their communities. They are relentlessly searching for the truth by preserving liberty and democracy. They are doing all of this without the respect that a protected member of the media has.

Instead of penalizing citizen journalists and failing to recognize their value to the changing media world, the courts should grant them journalistic protections. Those who value news should hope that the Oregon ruling is not followed in other states.

Jason Stverak is the President of the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, a leading journalism non-profit organization dedicated to providing investigative reporters and non-profit organizations at the state and local level with training, expertise, and technical support. For more information on the Franklin Center please visit www.FranklinCenterHQ.org.

So what next for the paper? Rumours that it will be given away free like Lebedev’s other newspaper, The London Evening Standard, continue, despite its new owner apparently assuring Prime Minister Gordon Brown that it won’t be.

Yet what will happen? Certainly Lebedev will invest a considerable amount of money in the paper, not least because his media properties back home in Russia have always had both his wallet and his backing to rely on, though presumably avoiding any conflict with him. Yet whether this will translate into a viable – let alone profitable – newspaper remains to be seen.

As a broadsheet (despite being tabloid-sized since 2003), The Independent sells only 183,547 copies a day, its Sunday edition a mere 155,661. Compare this to its closest rival, given their shared centre left outlooks, The Guardian, with 284,514 a day, or the right wing ‘qualities’ – The Times and The Telegraph – with 505,062 and 685,177 respectively. It is perhaps with good reason that The Sun’s* notorious ex-editor Kelvin McKenzie described this sector as the ‘unpopular press’ – certainly even The Times makes a yearly loss, whilst The Guardian continues to haemorrage money.

It may simply be the case that there are too many titles in an already over-crowded and undervalued sector of the press. A cynical observer may at this point argues that Lebedev’s actions are those of a billionaire oligarch who has just bought an expensive toy, perhaps evidenced by his son, Evgeny, being placed in charge of the operation. Yet this misses one important point – quality journalism costs money and may in fact be economically nonviable in today’s climate. Outside of rich benefactors and public bodies, how else is it to be funded?

This brings us to the online angle. One possibility Lebedev could pursue is to simply close the newspaper’s print arm altogether and focus on its online version, much as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Christian Scientist Monitor have already done. This does however still pose problems. Apart from the difficulties of making a profit from advertising alone, the centre left web news market has arguably already been colonised, by The Guardian whose site attracts 20,499,858 unique visitors a month versus Independent.co.uk’s paltry 7,215,928. The TV licence-funded BBC News Online also poses a considerable obstacle – not least with its 350 million page impressions a month. It has better resources, an internationally renowned brand and, some critics argue, a left-wing bias that competes with the Independent’s own similar editorial line. What niche can an online-only Independent occupy?

One suggestion comes from an unlikely source. Libertarian politics blogger Paul Staines, also known as ‘Guido Fawkes’, has always been scathing at what he refers to as ‘The Dead Tree Press’. Yet he also seems to have an attachment to The Independent – going so far as to suggest the paper should go completely digital and become moderate conservative, but also embrace technology the other newspapers have so far not explored – namely an application that allows it to be read by iPhone subscribers, an option Staines sees as a possible financially viable future for print media. Though, perhaps simply by dropping out of print altogether, The Independent could both save a small fortune and provide some room for the other broadsheets to expand into.

If not, then there is the possibility that The Independent may simply fade away, as other UK newspapers such as The Daily Sketch and The Sunday Correspondent** have done. A sometimes innovative newspaper’s final legacy may be that it is the first major UK casualty of the post-print age.

* The Sun’s present circulation is 2,972,763 – almost five times as much as The Telegraph, which is the UK’s most popular broadsheet.

** This publication closed down in 1990 with a circulation of 149,241 – dangerously close to The Independent’s present circulation.

For example, his retort in the early 1980s that unemployed rioters should ‘get on their bikes’ as his father did and look for work made him a hate figure on the Left. (Admittedly this did not take much effort, given the poisonous atmosphere of UK politics at the time.) He has spoken out against the European Union and even suggested that traditional Conservative voters should instead support the Euro-sceptic UK Independence Party, infuriating many in his own party.

In addition, some of his comments on race and multiculturalism have been equally controversial, though he has also denounced the neo-fascist British National Party. This abrasive, uninhibited approach earned him the nickname of ‘semi-house-trained polecat’ via the late Michael Foot, but also cemented his reputation as a hardman of the British mainstream right.

Despite this, he is also doing something very interesting on his blog, hosted by the web site of the London-based Daily Telegraph newspaper. Namely, he replies to comments made by reader in the main body of his blog posts, structuring them as if taking part in an informal discussion:

I think “dirlada” was right. Any one in any walk of life may make honest mistakes, even sensible mistakes, but in that recent incest case it was over 100 people from 28 different agencies, all making some pretty obvious mistakes which was the worry. And right again, “Bionic Raspberry”. What about the offenders and the extended family too?

Oh, “crownarmourer”, what a temptation! Me as Lord Protector. No, I do not think so. I sussed out how power corrupted him when I was a 15-year-old history student.

Again, I must tell “incensed” that I simply am not Mr Tebbit. I lost that title. I don’t mind Tebbit, Norman or, as cabbies usually address me, “Norm” but I am not “Mr”. And I hope that you still might see the difference between the EU and the USSR. Millions of Poles, Czechs, Slovaks and others who have experienced both can do so. Oh, and just a thought: were not the progenitors of the BNP ready to sell out to Hitler?

Whereas other columnists may occasionally reply to comments as commenters themselves, Tebbit seems unwilling to maintain such a barrier between blog and response. Instead he selects what he believes are either the most interesting posts made, or the ones that he believes require the most refutation. This is curiously inventive, cementing as it does, a direct connection between him and his readers. If we consider that online journalism’s strength is that it allows such a two-way conversation, even in a textual medium, then Tebbit is unusual in that he treats this as an essential part of the process, but also leaves aside the traditional aloofness of the journalist in doing so. He blogs, they read, they comment, he reads in turn and comments in turn. It is both cyclical and personable, but also an acceptance that what the reader says and thinks is at least as worthy of consideration as what the author writes, within some parameters – Tebbit still chooses what to reply to, whereas the reader still chooses what to comment on.

Tebbit also refers to each commentator by name, or at least, screen name. Again, this implies a greater intimacy between reader and author, but also a shared subjectivity – Tebbit picks comments, not all of which he agrees with, but answers them in a personalised and informal fashion:

As for “john the bear” I am just sorry that he has so little faith in his country. He fears that if the UK left the EU our former partners would set out to destroy us. They are not that stupid. They export more to us than we to them. They would be the bigger losers. And they would be in breach of the GATT…

…I should apologise to “blustering colonel” for ignoring his kind invitation to visit Singapore. I have been there many times, the first of them in 1954, so I am not unaware of the immense achievements of Lee Kwan Yu and the people of Singapore. Indeed I only wish that we had had more leaders like him here.

We might have been as successful as Singapore, but we only had one, and she was not leader for long enough.

Whilst Tebbit’s politics may not be seen as always desirable by either this author or many OJR readers, to dismiss them or how Tebbit articulates them is to ignore how he has developed a currently unique relationship with his readers. The closest equivalent may be the ‘ombudsman’ employed by some US news organisations, who uses his or her column to respond to reader/viewer queries and complaints. The main difference between these however is that the ombudsman still retains his or her distance from the reader – he is an emissary of the ‘writer’, embodied in this case by the hierarchy of the newsroom – and responds to missives from otherwise passive readers, but only on his or her terms and in an official – or even officious – capacity.

Tebbit meanwhile does choose what to reply to, but beyond that is an openness to a variety of comments. Tebbit may not necessarily agree with some commenters but still lists some of their more notable comments and responds to them accordingly:

I noticed amongst those posting comments on this site a number of contributors, john the bear cub, Matthew Gris, mark999, frederik and others telling me the EU is a done deal, a good thing, and that I should shut up and learn to love it. Oddly enough, as mickeypee and rapscallion pointed out, none of them explain why we should put up with a government we did not elect and cannot change compelling us to do things which are clearly not in our interest.

Oliver was not convinced by my explanation of why the main parties are pro EU and asked me why Cameron is so, too. Well, I simply do not know. He has not told me.

I thought basset was a bit grumpy. He forgets that I stood down from the Cabinet and refused invitations to go back. And to suggest that I have more influence over voters than David Cameron is a bit unrealistic. If it were true, then perhaps Camp Cameron would ask themselves why.

The views exhibited are in fact varied, despite the political bias one might assume of a blogger who as a rule tends to delete or ignore posts that are not in line with his own views. Steven Duncombe’s fears in 1997 that the World Wide Web would simply facilitate a myriad of ‘virtual ghettos’ or echo chambers* have often been realised many times, yet Tebbit’s blog has become an unlikely alternative – there may be no agreement, but nor is disagreement dismissed out of hand or shouted down. Tebbit allows commenters to disagree with him, and simply disagrees in turn.

How best to contextualise this? Conservative media figures, primarily in the United States, have always demonstrated a strong rapport with their audiences, as demonstrated by the success of right-wing ‘shock jocks’ such as Rush Limbaugh and latterly Glen Beck. Yet this does not take into account, for example, the considerable differences that exist between American and British schools of conservatism.

Equally, it does not acknowledge that right wing broadcast media is precisely that: a powerful figure speaks to a mute but appreciative audience – and it is this authoritativeness as opposed to Tebbit’s openness with his audience that defines this sub-genre. Of course, many ‘shock jocks’ reply to e-mails and letters on their shows, but again this is more akin to the traditional ‘postbag’ section in both print and broadcast media, whereas – as said – Tebbit is much more willing to interact with his readers, without prompting. It is obvious from the tone and the ease that he undertakes this that it is through choice. The writer has become the listener.

It is what Nicholas Carr refers to as ‘Conservative Innovation’, wherein the innovative is combined with the old and established in order to create something genuinely new and promising. Carr did of course refer to this in the context of industrial production, but given its technological nature, it can also be applied to Tebbit’s blog. He combines the conservative with the electronic, the journalistic with the informal, and in doing so, creates a new kind of conversation between him and his audience.

* Stephen Duncombe, Notes From Underground ‘Zines And The Politics Of Alternative Culture (New York: Verso, 1997), p.72

In this year 2009 five (5) journalists have been killed, seven others wounded while some others forced to fleeing their jobs when received phone calls from the armed groups against the National Unity Government of Somalia and the last recent killed was Mukhtar Mohamed Hirabe, who was the director of Shabelle radio based in Mogadishu.

A shocking two things in this year 2009 was the killing of Hornafric director Said Tahlil Ahmed while he was on his way for press conference to Al-shabaab group at that day Said accompanied by other media directors and some Alshabaab militias as guards but did nothing when Said was killed.

The other thing was the attack of radio Abudwak director Hassan Bulhan Ali while attending a reconciliation meeting between two rival clans on 7 February in Abudwak district and the attacker stabbed Hassan five (5) times in the chest and backside in the abdominal cavity.

In the light of the above, attacks on journalists violate their fundamental rights to freedom of expression and press and it deliberate attempt to silence the most important information revealing human rights violations by all parts to the conflict in Somalia

While this is exist, the Somali Journalists’ Rights Agency (SOJRA) calls for Islamic groups to protect the young Somali journalists who are decided to work on this hard circumstances.

SOJRA is kindly requesting to all Somali Islamic groups to take all necessary steps to ensure compliance with International Human Rights Law by the following these two items;

1- Halting death threats through phone calls and text messaging.

2- Facilitate their access of information by permitting full freedom of movement without feeling for constant fear of reprisal and harassments.

For the past three years and more journalists and media professionals in Somalia are among the people whose life is largely put in a dangerous situation.

SOJRA’s monitoring and observation sector (MOS) which systemically monitors and reports attacks on journalists is very power fully conveys the many dangerous that Somali journalists face on a regular basis.

Ref: 00134
Date: 07/06/ 09

Subject: Condemn
Women Journalist in Action (WOJA) extends condolence to the family, friends, and Somali media workers for the killing of Mukhtar Mohamed Hirabe, Director of Shabelle Radio and TV in Mogadishu, Somalia.

Somalia is the worst of the worst environments for broadcasters. Today Sunday morning (June 7) Shabelle Radio and TV director Mukhtar Mohamed Hirabe was gunned down by “unknown” assailants, according to local reports.

Program Director Ahmed Tajir was also shot and was taken to hospital in critical condition.

Two Radio Shabelle reporters were killed this year in separate incidents. Hirabe survived a February assassination attempt in the same Bakaro market district of Mogadishu that claimed the life of Radio HornAfrik director Said Tahlil Ahmed.

We have been appealing to political groups to end the killing of media people, but no group listened.
Now is the time for the international community to take urgent actions instead of issuing statements expressing its distress and condemnation.

The condemnation signed by
The coordinator of Women Journalist in Action WOJA
Sahra Mohamud Koronto (Keef)

- That’s typical of the comments of the last few days, as a steady trickle of senior ministerial resignations weaken an already precariously positioned Labour administration.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown teeters on the brink of facing overthrow through the twin assaults of, firstly, his collapsed general reputation within his own party and, secondly, the MPs expenses scandal which has swept politicians of all parties.

But perhaps most surprising of all is not that this quite extraordinary political imbroglio, a horrible mix of naked interpersonal bitterness coupled with endemic greed, has come to pass but rather that not many people are that surprised.

There is some anger, certainly, but all of that tempered with the “It’s just politics……” resignation.

It’s a massive moral write-down, a colossal discounting of expectation. And something very similar is still happening in the other major storyline – the economy.

As in the U.S., the over-heated financial institutions caught a nasty cold, the economy sneezed violently and morale was simply blown away in an instant.

And still the coverage tends to converge around single instances of wrong-doing, personalities, regulatory rules and third-party overseeing responsibilities. I comment in more detail on these corporate culture implications elsewhere.

“It’s just business, what more do you really expect?” is still largely the shared wisdom on the enduring recessionary situation.

Again, perhaps, the most surprising aspect of it all, certainly with the benefit now of a little hindsight, is not so much that it happened but that so few people really thought it that much of a surprise.

And that is, again, surely a significant part of the problem. We abrogate, they abnegate. The Fourth Estate only retains any of the integrity of an estate if it keeps boundaries.

These cautions surely press even harder in the dispersed and distributed media world which this excellent site features and champions.

Debate these boundaries, always. Extend the inclusiveness of these, absolutely. Be tolerant and promiscuous of admission, always. But never, never, let natural moral osmosis turn into a flood of dumb resignation. Comment’s cheap – and that’s probably good. Superficiality cheapens – and that most definitely is bad.

Ajournalist Muktaar Mohamed Hirabe 42 was shot dead to day in Bakara Market and other journalist of Shabelle radio Ahmed Taajir was also injured.

The Islamist organizations in Somalia are now a day seems that they adopted damaging of the Somali journalist and the foreign journalists coming to the country.

SOJRA monitoring and observation confirmed to day the releasing of Universal TV director Ibrahim Mohamed Hussein who was abducted on 02 June but SOJRA worry the healthof the Journalist Ibrahim Mohamed Hussien whom was the director of the universal TV for the south and central of Somalia.

It was June 03 2009 when the Islamist organization of Ahlusunnah wal jama’ah ordered to the horn of Africa reporter in Galgudud region not to release any news concerning the areas that they control otherwise they will be arrested and this is an other obstacle of existing real situation of the human rights in the region where there is a war going on in the region between them and the religious organization of ALshebab.

The same with that the Alshebab organization is terrorizing to the media whose spokesperson said that from the media call us our name a name he mentioned otherwise stop talking about the whole situation of Somalia no media can dare to say alshebab only otherwise they will face from us a very bad punishment this was on May 21 2009.

Alshabaab’s terrorizing to the media was also understood from one of it’s heads speech while he was speaking from the media of the horn of Afric radio named Maalin Hashi.

However, all this are against and obstacles to the journalism and the democracy and it do not seem that it will end up in a short time.

Finally SOJRA is calling to the international community to keep the eyes for those religious organizations damaging the journalists and to bring them in front of an international justice for the near coming future.

It is really unacceptable to us seeing our colleagues being killed and kidnapped every other day while they are doing their duties of covering the events that is occurring different places across the country.

We are also requesting whoever kidnapped our colleague that they should release him without any demands.

We also wish to see our colleague being released while he is safe and sound, it is really worrying us a lot and we are stunned that we don’t really know why the gunmen kidnapped our colleague, although there have been attacks, killings and abductions against the Somali journalists recently.

We the Somali journalists do work one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists to work. Four our Somali colleague journalists were killed in Somalia in 2009 alone.

Elsewhere, individual journalists face a wide range of problems preventing them from doing their jobs. From direct attacks by the authorities and others to the use of libel laws, we the Somali journalists face often insurmountable obstacles to fulfilling the tasks that are so necessary for the defence of human rights.

Journalists in Somalia continue to face targeted killing, death threats, arbitrary detention and intimidation by all parties to the conflict. There were some 30 detentions of Somali journalists (lasting between four and 115 days), and journalists suffered more than 30 death threats, two killings and several injuries in 2008, with no means of bringing perpetrators to justice. Since the beginning of 2009, there have been several attacks and killings

Nur Muse Hussein of Radio Holy Quran was shot in the leg in Beletweyne on 20 April 2009 when he was covering fighting between the local government and armed militia in the area. Hassan Bulhan Ali, Director of Radio Abudwaq, was knifed five times in the abdomen by a single attacker in Galgadud on 7 February 2009 at a clan reconciliation meeting.

Three men with pistols killed Said Tahlil Ahmed, Director of HornAfrik in Mogadishu, when they shot him four times in the head at Bakara Market in Mogadishu on 4 February 2009. He was on his way with other media directors to a meeting with local al-Shabab.

Hassan Mayow Hassan, with Radio Shabelle, was shot twice in the head after being stopped at a roadblock by a local government-affiliated militia and died in Afgooye on 1 January 2009 on his way to cover armed conflict in the area.
And now the director of Unversal TV has been kidnapped and his kidnapping has increased our worries and safeties but we will never give up our coverages and promoting the freedom of press no matter what happens.

Written by Abdi rahman Hussein Fure (British)

The Somali Journalists’ Rights Agency (SOJRA) is denouncing the abduction against Universal TV director in Mogadishu.

Somalia has not had a central government for close to two decades and it’s hard to work as a journalist. But the young Somali journalists decided to work in these hard circumstances.

Mr. Ibrahim Mohamed Hussein “Jeckey” abducted by unknown militia when he was on his way from Afgoye to the centre of the TV (http://tvuniversal.tv/NS/ ).

“We think this abduction is just like threatening from part of the Islamists in Somalia” said Daud Abdi Daud, SOJRA Executive director.

All Mogadishu media directors are now attentive to what is next this painful action against freedom of expression and press freedom in Somalia.

All the parts who are involving the violence are not going to protect the young journalists in Somalia and this caused fear against the press on day by day.

During the past 10 days or so, most of the sites are showing totally erratic behavior. They’re either not opening up or only some pages are working for them. When you click on the links, they refuse to work. Or text appears but pictures disappear. And after sometime, everything is suddenly normal. No, it’s not any evil spirit. I don’t believe in that. Then?

First, I thought the interruptions are happening to high-traffic content sites. But no; it’s true even for one-visitor-a-day kind of company sites also. As I couldn’t find any pattern in this change, it seems to be all random. This could be a local problem also in my area (I live in New Delhi, India and use a Wi-Fi connection for Internet access.)

If other users are also facing such a problem, they may use the “Comments” section with this article to share their experiences.

This may be a local or temporary flaw. In general, however, I must tell you that this web thing is not yet stable. I have been using various web tools and technologies for over 10 years and have written a lot about them. During this period, I’ve observed that their number has been increasing exponentially, but their reliability has always ebbed down. Most of the web technologies – from search to social sites to analytics to content systems – are too raw and shaky.

And now this “social” trend is adding fuel to the fire. Today, any company that has anything to do with the web is hugely infatuated with this social thing. In the process, these companies are encouraging users to throw everything brought from everywhere into their own or public social sites.

So there’s an unruly hoo-hah in and around social media or social networking sites. While that has resulted in the creation of some colossal “information junkyards,” there are millions of people all over the world who want to be part of this mad social scramble. Obviously, when this crowd is growing, web is going to wilt under the pressure.

This could be a reason that after sometime web needs rest these days, and it’s slow in responding actively to users’ requests. Do you agree?

Rakesh Raman is the managing editor of My Techbox Online.
This article was published on May 25, 2009 at http://www.mytechboxonline.com/mtoweb/web-rrweb-05.html
You may please see the original version that also has reference links.