Good news for bloggers…
...though not sure if it is as good for the readers.
Another article in HE Haaretz today (I am stopping with it for my subscription to the newspaper is gong to end in just two days :) told a story of Apple’s loss in a suite where they tried to force bloggers to expose their sources. The court said that it has no tools to distinguish between “legitimate” (read “mainstream and/or established”) and “non-legitimate” (read “grassroots and/or alternative”) news. Thus all the rules applied in order to protect journalistic practices should be applied to blogs as well.
Seemingly, it is a positive development strengthening the blogsphere. At the same time, I think there are question rising as to the parallels between blogging and journalism. When I am writing that, I have in mind the issue of ethical norms. While established journalists are subject to a certain set of ethical norms and rules, are the bloggers subject to same criteria? Should the be? Even when the journalists do not comply with the ethical code, there is scale to assess their activity, but is there such measurement for blogs? And again, should there be? What will stop me tomorrow from attacking a company, an institution or a person, without any basis? What will stop me from spreading lies over the blogshpere? Is there any shared code of conduct here according to which I may check if my actions are legitimate? Or anything is legitimate?
I think I’ll go to sleep on this happy note :)
Another article in HE Haaretz today (I am stopping with it for my subscription to the newspaper is gong to end in just two days :) told a story of Apple’s loss in a suite where they tried to force bloggers to expose their sources. The court said that it has no tools to distinguish between “legitimate” (read “mainstream and/or established”) and “non-legitimate” (read “grassroots and/or alternative”) news. Thus all the rules applied in order to protect journalistic practices should be applied to blogs as well.
Seemingly, it is a positive development strengthening the blogsphere. At the same time, I think there are question rising as to the parallels between blogging and journalism. When I am writing that, I have in mind the issue of ethical norms. While established journalists are subject to a certain set of ethical norms and rules, are the bloggers subject to same criteria? Should the be? Even when the journalists do not comply with the ethical code, there is scale to assess their activity, but is there such measurement for blogs? And again, should there be? What will stop me tomorrow from attacking a company, an institution or a person, without any basis? What will stop me from spreading lies over the blogshpere? Is there any shared code of conduct here according to which I may check if my actions are legitimate? Or anything is legitimate?
I think I’ll go to sleep on this happy note :)
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