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Bloggers are not journalists, Lithuanian parliament says
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by meyers | March 27, 2007 at 01:22 pm
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An Internet blogger in new EU member state Lithuania vowed Tuesday to fight a parliamentary decision refusing him accreditation on the grounds that he was not a legitimate journalist."This decision does not allow me to enjoy the rights and protection other journalists are entitled to," Liutauras Ulevicius, author of the www.blogas.lt/liutauras, said.
Parliament rejected his application for accreditation, saying he and other bloggers do not meet the legal definition of a journalist.
"The Media Law describes a journalist as a person who collects, disseminates and provides information to the media, based on a contract with the media, or who is a member of a journalists' union," parliament's education, science and culture committee said.
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at 13:38 on March 27th, 2007
I agree that not all bloggers are journalists, but there is a point at which blogging becomes journalism; for example, we at NP have our code of conduct. The whole "based on a contract" thing is the real slippery slope here; I argue that the arena has changed since the J. Jonah Jameson days, and that Lithuania's decision is more about control than accredation: a journalist can be arrested for breaking a story and the state can just say, "oh, s/he is just a blogger, so even our own laws protecting journos do not apply." Scary stuff.
at 14:51 on March 27th, 2007
This is interesting. Excellent post. We are having these conversations in our community.
The local daily paper of record has a columnist as the leading voice. Laura Schlessinger and her new blog. She is confusing but teamed with the paper they want to change things. Schlessinger, who is not a journalist and uses anonymous, is boycotting all anonymous blogs and comments. That is her right. The owner of the local daily paper of record has subpoenaed Google for an anonymous bloggers IP address and based another case on an anonymous blogger. It has had a chilling effect in Santa Barbara.
Thank you Meyers for a whileworth post. Lol