Legal Research

What the US Media Shield Bill Means for Bloggers & Citizen Journalists

By jlutz99

From Mashable, here's an excerpt:

The Free Flow of Information Act of 2009 (also known as the Media Shield Bill) recently passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, meaning that the bill has been placed on the official calendar of business and could be considered and voted upon by the entire Senate soon. If the bill passes in the Senate, it will still need to be reconciled with a different version that passed in the House earlier this year.

What is the Media Shield Bill? It offers a ?shield? to protect those who provide news from potential legal action, like subpoenas requesting access to protected sources or documents. More importantly, perhaps, the bill seeks to define the very act of journalism itself, and who can be called a journalist. This could have profound implications for bloggers and citizen journalists.

Read more here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz

Full post as published by FSU College of Law Library Blog on December 18, 2009 (boomark / email).