The Commonwealth of Kentucky has settled a lawsuit with a political blogger whose critical comments of then-Gov. Ernie Fletcher resulted in the state “blacklisting” all blogs on state-owned computers.
Public Citizen’s client Mark Nickolas, author of the blog BluegrassReport.org, agreed to dismiss the suit in the U.S. District Court in Frankfort, Ky. after Kentucky officials approved the settlement agreement. Louisville attorney Jennifer Moore also represented Nickolas.
Under the settlement, Kentucky officials agreed to no longer single out websites just because they are considered blogs. State officials reserve the right to block sites they consider inappropriate but agree to use a “viewpoint-neutral” standard that applies equally to all Web sites.
Public Citizen filed suit on behalf of Nickolas after the state started using a filtering program to censor all Web sites categorized as blogs. The state’s former top computer official stated in a court filing that the filtering policy was implemented because the governor’s office was unhappy with Nickolas’s blog, which was widely read by state employees and frequently criticized the governor.
Kentucky’s blog ban went into effect June 20, 2006, the same day Nickolas was quoted in The New York Times criticizing Fletcher, who was facing misdemeanor charges for claims that he had forced Democrats out of state civil service jobs in order to give them to political allies. Fletcher has since been defeated by current Gov. Steve Beshear.
“The state of Kentucky targeted Web sites it considered ‘unfriendly’ and, in doing so, violated the First Amendment rights of Mark Nickolas and other bloggers,” said Greg Beck, the Public Citizen attorney who handled the case. “We applaud the current administration for recognizing that the state cannot impose special restrictions on websites just because they are run by bloggers instead of big media companies.”
For more information about the case, click here.
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
The stupid thing is, because the government raised a fuss over the politically minded blogs, they just gave the blog owners a massive amount of free advertisement. You pick your battles people! And when you pick those battles, you're an idiot if you don't take into consideration what the backlash will be. How many times have we heard now, that someone has tried to impose censorship on the internet and failed? Morons!
ReplyDeleteJesus, I just clicked on the link to the article and it took 2 years to reach the settlement! If we didn't have crap like this going through our court system, maybe we wouldn't have to wait for so long to get court cases settled?
ReplyDeleteJesus Christ, Joe. Are you trying to kill Barrie with this and the Water Keeper post?
ReplyDeleteHAPPY FRIDAY EVERYBODY!
It's been nearly a year since the witch and Jack n Coke filed suit against Joe. Whats another year or more sitting on the docket?
ReplyDeleteNow Joe, we agree on little at times but you've got to agree, it's time to consider COUNTERSUITS.
Not only violated the first amendment rights just because people were bloggers, but violated the rights of the state employees trying to read different viewpoints!
ReplyDeleteQuestion: why should there be executive immunity for officials who conduct reigns of terror on citizens?
The real problem here as I see it, is that these state employees were bloging or commmenting on blogs during their working hours. In such a case I feel the state or the employee has every right to demand that stop and the employees do their blogging/commenting on their own time. Blogging or commenting is not why they are being paid by the state or otherwise.
ReplyDeleteA. Goetz
Mr. Goetz, I agree with you on that point. To put a mandate as Barrie Tilghman has done is another story completely. She wants to fire people immediately if they read Joe's blog OR if they speak with Cohen or Campbell without directing them to her for information.
ReplyDeleteThis is forcing people to work under duress.
Someone please, call those commie lawyers...CALL THE ACLU
whatever happened to "The Right To "Free Speech" ????
ReplyDelete