Are bloggers journalists?
Are bloggers journalists?
Or, to put it another way, should US freedom of information law give them the same privileges granted to the mainstream media - to get information without having to pay the same charges that non-journalists are generally forced to pay?
The US House of Representatives has just passed a Bill which could give bloggers the same FOI rights as journalists affifliated to recognised news institutions. The Bill will now be considered by the Senate.
Not surprisingly bloggers George Bush isn't. explains why 'the Administration strongly opposes expanding the definition of 鈥渞epresentative of the news media.鈥'
As a blogging representative of the mainstream media, it seems clear to me that these distinctions get increasingly hard to maintain.
But then what happens? It's only one example of the privileged access to information which journalists sometimes get. Take the advance availability of embargoed press releases, reports or books as another case. In the era when everyone's a potential journo, do we traditional hacks lose our privileges or does everyone else gain them? In other words, levelling up or levelling down?
On the other hand, strangely enough, the British government's planned changes to our FOI regulations would obstruct the mainstream media much more than individual bloggers - because however many journalists a news organisation has, whether just one or hundreds or thousands, it would still be limited to the same small number of FOI requests.
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If the US Government classifies bloggers as journalists, will every blogger have to apply for a Media Visa when they travel to the USA, instead of using the Visa Waiver Programme ?
I'd like to consider myself a journalist, though I'm still hoping to publish some of the things I've found or will find. That said, I can wait to go through normal channels for FOIA requests.
As for the White House, I remember George W. Bush's first encounter with individuals connected to the internet. He wanted them shut down because, in his own words, "There ought to be limits to freedom." (Of course, the website was satiric, but the concept is still the same...)
Information that is relevant to the public domain needs to be freely accessible to every citizen let alone bloggers. By this definition if it means equating bloggers with journalists then so be it.
Can anyone help me with a particular problem. I am a working journalist and have put in a request under FOIA after a man took the local authority to the industrial court for the second time. Without giving too much away he won tens of thousands first time around. And four years down the line I understand the authority has settled out of court. With massive implications for the council tax payers. I put in a request under the FOIA to obtain a breadkdown of how much it is likely to cost and the authority has come back saying it can't reveal the information under the Data Protection Act. Can anyone think of a particular ruling made by the Information Commissioner which I might be able to throw back at them?
Perhaps you should search the Information Commissioner's database of Decision Notices for section 40 (data protection exemption) cases.
It's here:
Thanks Martin