Sheriff threatens reporter after story about imprisoned son

Gawker gave me this beaut about a Texas sheriff who threatened to imprison a journo after they reported on his son's imprisonment.

"Christopher Maher wrote a front-page story about the arrest of the sheriff's 42-year-old son Miguel Barrera on charges of public intoxication and resisting arrest. According to the newspaper, when Maher called the sheriff about another story, Barrera said, "If you guys keep interfering with my business, I'm going to have you arrested."

Nicole Perez, managing editor of the Echo-News Journal and The Freer Press alerted the county attorney.

"I am bringing these remarks to your attention in the hope that they will remain as such, just remarks," Perez wrote Duval County Attorney Ricardo Carrillo. "However, considering the volatile political atmosphere in Duval County I have no doubt that Sheriff Barrera would carry out such a threat."

The rest of the story is horrific in that stereotypical-southern-US-Gothic kind of way where man + badge = way too much power.

Links from Feb 2, 2008

Rogue Columnist - I should investigate this gent's writings more, but here's a link from BoingBoing to his post on what's really wrong with the modern newspaper's business model: its ad sales mentality.

Threat Level - "Afghan Student Sentenced to Death After Downloading Report." Reporters Without Borders has a statement on the situation here.

Bloggos and Journos may get protection

From David Jones' PR Works blog, a note on a new bill that may get passed providing reporters and some bloggers with some protection from governments wanting access to confidential sources.

CNet has a story on the blogging half of the equation.

Inside Chinese Net Censorshing

Filing this to read later (when I'm not at work).

A “Journey to the Heart of Internet censorship” on eve of party congress.

In partnership with Reporters Without Borders and Chinese Human Rights Defenders, a Chinese Internet expert working in IT industry has produced an exclusive study on the key mechanism of the Chinese official system of online censorship, surveillance and propaganda. The author prefers to remain anonymous.

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Professional bloggers could get journalist shield

Nate Anderson has a story/post on a new bill that would protect journalists from revealing their sources in the U.S. It may apply to bloggers as well (provided they make money doing their reporting).

Linky to post at Ars Technica.

Alan Johnston released through Hamas

The BBC is reporting that:

BBC reporter Alan Johnston has said it is "just unimaginably good to be free" after 114 days in captivity in Gaza.

He said his ordeal felt like being "buried alive", and was "sometimes quite terrifying".

Mr Johnston, 45, was handed over to the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza City. Britain said the group had played a key role in his release.

CIA to declassify its "illegal operations" papers

The US Central Intelligence Agency is to declassify hundreds of documents detailing some of the agency's worst illegal abuses from the 1950s to 1970s.

...and further down...

"Among the incidents that were said to "present legal questions" were:

* the confinement of a Soviet defector in the mid-1960s
* assassination plots of foreign leaders, including Cuba's Fidel Castro
* wiretapping and surveillance of journalists
* behaviour modification experiments on "unwitting" US citizens
* surveillance of dissident groups between 1967 and 1971
* opening from 1953 to 1973 of letters to and from the Soviet Union; from 1969 to 1972 of mail to and from China"
-from the BBC website, June 22

Much of this is already known in the public sphere. The papers' release will undoubtedly renew attention. Check back with this one.

Related edit: June 25
According to the NY Times and BBC, the U.S. government is also reclassifying many documents that were once public.

Edit: June 26
Wired's Danger Room blog coverage of the declassified info.
Something called The National Security Archive, linked from BoingBoing.

Day of action for Alan Johnston

A story to follow concerning a BBC journalist abducted in Gaza.

"Alan was abducted in Gaza exactly a month ago and a series of events were held in the UK and the Middle East today to highlight his plight and try to put pressure on those holding him.

Large billboards have been erected in central London locations to remind the public at large of his situation.

It was a day of many moving moments.

In an unprecedented move, the BBC, Sky, CNN and Al Jazeera came together to broadcast a special programme for Alan. "

Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer gets jail sentence

The BoingBoing post is rife with relevant links. I'll just link to that for further illumination.