"A federal appeals court from the West appropriately ruled Jan. 17 that bloggers and other citizen journalists are entitled to protection from lawsuits in the same way that professional journalists are."

"Hello, bloggers. Welcome to the club.

A federal appeals court from the West appropriately ruled Jan. 17 that bloggers and other citizen journalists are entitled to protection from lawsuits in the same way that professional journalists are.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new trial for a former Montana blogger who wrote controversial online postings; she contended that a court-appointed trustee in Oregon criminally mishandled a bankruptcy case. What’s important about the case is it extends First Amendment protections — traditionally extended to journalists sued for defamation — to people who blog and to other citizen journalists. The ruling applies to states covered by the 9th Circuit, such as Montana.

It’s a leap forward in extending the First Amendment, which protects expression and other cherished freedoms, to people who do not necessarily make a living working for a newspaper or a broadcast station."

"“And, while we hope people will be responsible in exercising freedoms of speech and press, bloggers generally perform an important function in modern technological communications, and they are entitled to the same strong protections as the institutional media,” Meloy said Friday.

The person who stirred the pot in this case was Crystal L. Cox, a blogger from the northwest Montana town of Eureka who was sued for defamation by Bend, Ore., attorney Kevin Padrick and his company, Obsidian Finance Group LLC.

Cox had posted sharply critical comments on several websites making accusations of fraud, corruption, money-laundering and other illegal activities. Originally, Summit Accommodators had defrauded investors in its real estate operations through a Ponzi scheme, and Summit had hired Padrick and Obsidian to advise them before filing for bankruptcy, according to the 9th Circuit ruling filed Jan. 17.

Padrick was appointed trustee in the company’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. A jury in 2011 ordered Cox to pay Padrick and Obsidian $2.5 million in a case filed in federal court in Oregon.

Under the 9th Circuit ruling, Padrick and Obsidian will need to show Cox was guilty of actual malice in order to receive punitive damages as the result of a new trial. Cox, who now lives in Port Townsend, Wash., was assisted in her appeal by Eugene Volokh, a UCLA law professor.

“It makes clear that bloggers have the same First Amendment rights as professional journalists,” Volokh told the Associated Press.

An attorney for the plaintiff said his clients are considering options, including going to trial once again or appealing the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

If bloggers can feel some relief that people suing them for defamation must prove malice to receive punitive damages, we also point out that they must act responsibly in what they publish. Professional journalists must be able to defend their work, and so will bloggers and other citizen journalists. At some point, Cox will need to defend her actions once again in court, too."

Source
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20140128/OPINION/301280006/Appeals-court-ruling-favors-blogger