Sunday, November 19, 2006

The Blogger says "Whew"


Pretty soon bloggers won’t have to worry about those pesky libel lawsuits. The City University of New York’s new Graduate School of Journalism is being awarded a $50,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to make an online “rule book” to educate bloggers on legal risks to blogging. The guide will have the top 10 rules and guidelines all bloggers should know, rules touching on topics from libel to copyright issues.

Journalism Director at CUNY’s Baruch College Geanne Rosenberg will be heading the project, while brain of the popular blog BuzzMachine Jeff Jarvis is lending a hand.

Jarvis blogs that this could not have come at a more opportune time. There have been a slew of lawsuits against bloggers. The Media Law Research Center has comprised a list of lawsuits reported.

This comes as a relief and a dose of fresh air to many. Although some bloggers are professional writers, the majority of bloggers found on the web are amateur, citizen writers who do not know the legal hassles they can get in when posting a message with a copyrighted image, or a hateful message about another person. CUNY’s online guide will be a great contribution in keeping the integrity of journalism and our right to free speech.

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