“Protections given to journalists in New Jersey do not apply to people who post online, a judge has ruled.”
Okay, so New Jersey is in the United States; which also means the Kota Bharu High Court in Kelantan might yet rule that Mat Cendana, Piggy Singh and satD – by virtue of having an account at Blogger.com - are to be given protections similar to people like Fauziah Ismail, the New Straits Times Chief News Editor, and Malay Mail editor Ahirudin Attan. YAHOOO!
But then our courts might not – the observations made by the judge here are universally sensible. So, to those bloggers who see themselves as “Citizen Reporters”, this is as far as it goes. 
Unfortunately, there might be some who somehow `perasan’ they are also on par with the regular ink-stained reporters. And no, the number of pageviews doesn’t matter either.
CAPTION: What `Live Blogging’ would be had laptops not been invented. Hidden on the other side is a 12-Volt car battery
This is from the First Amendment Center in the US, in a case where a blogger, Shellee Hale, refused to reveal her sources. This is what journalists do when various angry people or organizations seek retribution after something these scribes wrote had left a negative impact on them.
No matter what, “The buck stops here” – the sources must never be revealed! This is regardless to the repercussions in store for the journalists and their publications.
This is fair for both sides – the journalist gets the story while the source remains unknown.
In this particular matter, Hale had claimed that customer information of a company called Too Much Media (TMM) was compromised. Now TMM, which provides software used by porn websites, was not too happy about that, to say the least.
There are many “closet porn patrons” at the sites and `exposures’ like this are sure to make them jumpy. So, to protect its business reputation, TMM insisted the info is secure and has taken Shellee Hale to court. That was when she tried to invoke that “protecting sources” line.
See the full story here: N.J. judge: Blogger isn't protected by state shield law
