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Source protection: 'Disappointing' ruling has silver lining
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May 10, 2010 - Posted by Dean Jobb
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Commentary
The Supreme Court of Canada’s refusal to protect the National Post’s confidential source and grant constitutional protection to all journalists’ sources is “disappointing,” writes Toronto media lawyer Brian MacLeod Rogers. But the door is open to future privilege claims and the court has clearly recognized the importance of confidential sources to investigative journalism and the public’s right to know. Read his analysis of the ruling and its implications:
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Court unmasks anonymous media site posters
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April 15, 2010 - Posted by Dean Jobb
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NEWS – In what may be the first case of its kind involving comments posted to a Canadian media website, the Halifax weekly The Coast has been ordered to identify seven people who made allegedly defamatory statements tagged to a story about racism in the city’s fire department. As well, Google was ordered to identify the holder of a gmail account who circulated an email that could be defamatory. "The court doesn't condone the conduct of anonymous Internet users," a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge ruled April 14. The Coast and Google did not oppose the motion to produce the information. Read the reports in The Globe and Mail and Halifax's Chroncile Herald.
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The upside of the confidential sources ruling
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May 18, 2010 - Posted by Dean Jobb
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Commentary
Don't let the negative headlines get you down – there’s good news for journalists in the the Supreme Court of Canada’s May 7 ruling in the case of the National Post, its former reporter Andrew McIntosh, and the possibly forged document at the heart of a nine-year legal battle to protect a source. Law section editor Dean Jobb reviews the ruling and what it means for journalists:
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Blanket ban on Stafford case attacked as 'absurd'
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August 31, 2010 - Posted by Dean Jobb
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Canada’s leading newspapers and media law experts have condemned a sweeping publication ban imposed April 30 on a hearing in the Tori Stafford murder case.
Justice Dougald McDermid of Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice prohibited the media from reporting what happened when Terri-Lynne McClintic, one of two people accused of the eight-year-old’s 2009 abduction and murder, was scheduled to appear in court in Woodstock. The Globe and Mail ran a front-page editorial on May 1 calling the ban “absurd” and “a danger to Canadians.”
The Toronto Star said it will challenge the scope of the temporary ban and warned in an editorial that “rumour and innuendo will replace solid reporting” if it stands. Star columnist Rosie DiManno says the ban “cheats Canadians” who have a right to follow the high-profile case, and underlined her point in another column in which the banned information was blacked out. Meanwhile, Ontario’s NDP justice critic and media law experts contend the ban goes too far and flies in the face of the Charter’s guarantee of press freedom.
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Why CBC reported on judge's nude photo scandal
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September 2, 2010 - Posted by Dana Lacey
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Today the CBC ran a story about Lori Douglas, a Manitoba family judge that is involved in a scandal over nude photos of her that were posted online. Should the CBC have run the story, considering the careers and lives at stake? Cecil Rosner thinks so.
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Toronto Sun responds to plagiarism accusation
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September 2, 2010 - Posted by Dana Lacey
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The hockey blogosphere has accused the Toronto Sun of plagiarism, calling the traditional media clueless when it comes to understanding new media. Toronto Sun editor-in-chief James Wallace responds...
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Grievance journalism: restricted access inspires series
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September 7, 2010 - Posted by Dana Lacey
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Three Victoria Times Colonist journalists, frustrated by repeated delays in accessing public court documents, decided to conduct an experiment with the BC court system. What they found - that the public is routinely and wrongly denied access to information - inspired an award-winning series. Rob Shaw shares the story behind the story.
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Access denied in BC's open court system
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August 31, 2010 - Posted by Dana Lacey
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Victoria Times Colonist reporters Louise Dickson, Lindsay Kines and Rob Shaw found case after case where B.C.'s courts routinely and wrongly deny access to information that should be available to the public...
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Writers join forces to fight new copyright bill
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July 14, 2010 - Posted by Dana Lacey
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 Freelance journalists, poets, playwrights, translators and fiction and non-fiction book writers will join forces to protest Canada's new copyright legislation, which they say could be devastating to the writing trade, The Toronto Star reports...
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Court orders paper to name commenter
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July 12, 2010 - Posted by Dana Lacey
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A court order from a New Brunswick judge has ordered a Moncton newspaper to reveal the identity of an anonymous commenter who made accusations of racism in against the fire department...
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News reports did not demonstrate anti-police bias: CBSC
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July 8, 2010 - Posted by Dana Lacey
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The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) has ruled against a viewer complaint that the combination of three top stories on Global BC's March 23, 2009 6 p.m. broadcast demonstrated an anti-police bias...
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The conduct of public inquiries
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July 13, 2010 - Posted by Dana Lacey
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Whether its about G20, Air India or Mulroney-Schreiber, good, bad or indifferent public inquiries make news and reporters are sent to cover them, Peter Rehak writes. Yet, relatively little has been written that would help a journalist deal with such an assignment. Until now, that is.
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edited by Dean Jobb
 This is a clearinghouse for news, information, advice and commentary on legal issues of importance to journalists. Dean Jobb is an associate professor at the University of King's College School of Journalism in Halifax, where he teaches print journalism and newspaper production. He is the author of Media Law for Canadian Journalists (Emond Montgomery Publications, 2nd ed., 2010) and co-author of Digging Deeper: A Canadian Reporter's Research Guide (Oxford University Press). He writes a column on legal issues for Media, the Canadian Association of Journalists magazine, and frequently reports on media law topics for The Lawyers Weekly.
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