Newshare

Should newspapers be worried about the Brand X decision?

Should newspapers and free-speech advocates be worried about the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the Brand X case?  Stay tuned to see if the Newspaper Association of America has anything to say about it. And read some thoughts on the subject from news accounts of Monday's decision.  The ACLU is concerned. So is the Center for Digital Democracy.

Utah bans online material "harmful to minors" -- but what is it?

This from the Center for Democracy and Technology's website, posted March 22, 2005:
http://www.cdt.org/headlines/headlines.php?hid=759

"Utah Governor Signs Censorship Law - On Monday, Utah Governor John Huntsman signed into law a bill creating broad new restrictions over certain adult content online. Most critically, the new law contains ISP blocking requirements similar to those successfully challenged by CDT in Pennsylvania last year. CDT believes that the Utah law raises similar constitutional and policy problems, and is likely to face a court challenge. (http://www.cdt.org/speech) "

In a quick read by Newshare of the bill as signed, there appears to be no definition of what is meant by "material harmful to minors." Despite the lack of definition, ISPs face criminal penalties if they are found to be allowing transmission of such undefined material without warning their users.  Now that's a tough standard to meet!

Got to the CDT website to get links to the text of the new Utah law:
http://www.cdt.org/speech/20050302hb260.pdf
http://www.cdt.org/speech/20050307cdtanalysis.pdf
http://www.cdt.org/speech/pennwebblock/

Washington press corps serious about secrecy?

The determination of the Washington press corps to alert the public to rising government secrecy may have notched up a bit.  A University of Missouri seminar in DC on "The Seduction of Secrecy" had participants talking about creating "secrecy beats" at their news organizations such as The New York Times. However, The AP's Tom Curley says the wire service isn't getting much play in the nation's newspapers for stories about government refusal to provide information about what's going on at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

http://www.journalism.missouri.edu/news/releases/2005/related/hurley-transcript.html
Transcript of 5th Annual Hurley Symposium from March 17, 2005
"The Seduction of Secrecy: Toward Better Access to Government Information on the Record" Symposium at the National Press Club, Washington, D.C. March 17, 2005, 9 to 11 a.m. Moderated by Geneva Overholser, Curtis B. Hurley Chair in Public Affairs Reporting, in the Missouri School of Journalism's Washington bureau. Co-sponsored by the National Press Club and the Missouri School of Journalism.

Downloadable MP3 audio file:
http://www.journalism.missouri.edu/podcast/2005-03-17-hurley-symposium.mp3

Poynter media blogger James Romenesko's highlighting of Curley's comments:
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45&aid=80027