It has been more than a month since CurrentTV journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were detained by North Korean authorities on the China-North Korea border. Yet relatively little has been made public about what their status is as well as what the US government or their media corporation is doing to ensure their fast and safe release. The following video entry explains the situation.
References in this video include:
Huffington Post on Laura Ling and Euna Lee’s arrest.
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Allowing comments: A good defense against lawsuits?
by David Markland on April 20, 2009 · 7 comments
in Commenting, Legal Issues
Los Angeles lawyer Adrianos Facchetti may seem like a blogger’s worst nightmare - his specialty is in seeking remedies for clients who argue they have been slandered by anyone from anonymous reviewers to legitimate bloggers. However, his Defamation Law Blog contains plenty of useful tips and interesting insight into potential dangers citizen journalists should notice.
One entry, “5 Ways to Avoid Being Sued On Your Blog” contains mostly obvious tips, such as ensuring you’re writing the truth and correcting facts if an error is discovered, but this one was surprising:
Of course, if you have comments, keep an eye on them, and ensure you have a “comment policy” in place that disallows commenters to impersonate others and to put the liability on them for what they write. This doesn’t keep you bulletproof from a potential lawsuit - anyone can sue you, and even if you win in court the legal costs will likely be prohibitive - it may help set a tone.
The Blog Herald has a great guide on creating a comments policy, suggesting a good chunk of language including a “hold harmless” clause:
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