It only seems fair that if I am going to start a blog, I should be reading blogs. This is true for several reasons. I might get ideas on how to manage my blog, or find interesting bits of news or just to get another writer’s take on a matter.
For the last couple weeks I have been reading news concerning journalists and journalism and writing about whatever has interested me and pertained to my life as a new blogger. This week however I chose to research other journalist’s blogs, or blogs on journalism to try and find one I liked. For some reason this wasn’t an easy task. Oddly, a lot of them were not updated in several weeks, or even months. Some of them were too confusing to follow.
One that I did enjoy was Jon Slattery’s blog. He is a freelance journalist living in the U.K. I am taking a class on comparative media law and one of the things I do every week is look at journalism in another country. (Which is why the journalism strike in Greece a few weeks ago caught my eye.)
It’s amazing how many countries choose to follow along with the United States’ laws on freedom of the press, (which makes sense) while other countries still aren’t quite on board. For example, in Russia there is no actual malice law. A public person/ official can sue for defamation without having to prove actual malice. This naturally means it’s much harder for the press or even an individual to criticize the government – you might get sued. I thank my luck stars I am a journalist in the United States which works hard at protecting the role of the press.
In Slattery’s blog, he focuses on journalism news both in the U.K and abroad. I like this approach because as journalists we should be aware of what’s going on in other countries as well. It is foolish to think the laws of other countries won’t affect you. I heard once if you write an email praising Hitler and his work, and address it to an official in Germany, if you ever set foot on German soil you can be arrested. It’s illegal to say anything good about Hitler in Germany. This is a useful piece of information to have as a journalist.
What about the court case in Paris only a few months ago that involved a professor at the New York University’s School of Law? On his website he published a book review written by another professor of law at the University of Cologne. The author of the book, who lives and works in Israel found the review to be defamatory and brought a criminal-libel case against him in France. Why France? The author was practicing what’s called ‘forum shopping;’ looking for the court system that would most likely favor her side of the case.
Can you imagine being a working professor in the United States, and then being summoned to appear in court in France over something you yourself didn’t even write – you just published it on your website. This is the world we live in – it’s small. I think Jon Slattery sees the connections journalism has from one country to the next and reports on this.
I also liked how his blogs are written in traditional news fashion. That old inverted pyramid we all know and love. He is obviously a news writer and probably writes this way because he is comfortable with it. While blogs can be more conversational, I kind of like getting my news from a blog that reads like traditional news stories. His blog is also laid over very simply. It’s easy to get to his profile and his archives. There isn’t a lot of nonsense. I plan to continue to follow Jon’s blog and other international journalism blogs.
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