Bloggers are journalists under FOIA
: Phil Yanov beat me to hearing this week’s On The Media and heard this bit of good sense:
On The Media reported in an interview with GOP Senator John Cornyn that bloggers, just like mainstream journalists, would have fees waived under the new Faster FOIA (Freedom of Information Act.) The Senator says “It is not government’s responsibility to try to decide who is and who is not [a qualified journalist.]” He continued “They, as citizen activists … need to be able to get access to information as well.”
: See also the Rocky Mountain News arguing that bloggers are journalists who deserve shield-law protection:
Count us among the growing legions who embrace the notion that Web bloggers deserve the same shield-law protections accorded to other journalists. But a California case has reminded us just how vulnerable Colorado journalists are whose work appears on the Internet.
We should be seeing news organizations across the country making exactly the same argument. We’re waiting…[via Steve Rubel]
