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Sunday, November 21, 2004

another blogger glitch, wouldn't let me post this.
media law blog reports:
Monday, October 25, 2004
Reporting facts from court proceedings privileged
An accurate report of facts from a court proceeding on a matter of public importance may not be the basis of a libel judgement, the Supreme Court of North Dakota ruled last week, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. A state statute provides a privilege for fairly reporting of such facts, the court ruled, dismissing a libel claim brought by Libertarian Party candidate for North Dakota governor, Roland C. Riemers, against the Grand Forks Herald. While Riemers was running for U.S. Senate in 2002, the Herald published a story that cited court findings in Riemers' 2001 divorce that he had beaten his wife and lied about his finances.

posted by Robert Ambrogi at 7:40 PM 0 comments
Report: Indiana officials routinely violate records law
Public officials in Indiana routinely violate the state's public records law, according to this report produced by eight Indiana newspapers: "Government officials routinely broke or skirted Indiana's open records law during a statewide test by eight newspapers," the report said. It went on:
Journalists presenting themselves as citizens visited government offices in all 92 counties to see how readily officials turned over documents that are supposed to be available to anyone.
While some journalists easily obtained the records, others were intimidated, questioned repeatedly, put off for days, or wrongly told they needed a court order or subpoena. One county worker said it would take 'an act of God' for him to turn over the public document.
The denial of records demonstrates the uphill fight citizens face in obtaining even the most basic government information paid for with their tax dollars.


has he stopped beating his wife yet?
this suit is an example of what i see as a problem with the libertarian's litigation strategy - lack of central planning. i doubt this suit was authorized by the home office.
the beaver case is a less egregious example of the genre, but i have my doubts about whether it will win.

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