Orwell Prize director Jean Seaton in a comment piece in the Guardian has attacked The Times for outing police blogger and Orwell winner NightJack in a move which has led to the blog being silenced.
She writes: "What is puzzling is The Times attack. The paper has made an intelligent use of blogs, and has been good at fighting the use of the courts to close down expression. NightJack was a source and a reporter. They would not (I hope) reveal their sources in court. Even odder is their main accusation against him: that the blog revealed material about identifiable court cases. The blog did not do this – cases were disguised. However, once the Times had published Horton's name then, of course, it is easy to find the cases he was involved with. The Times has shut down a voice.
"Blogs as a form are no more reliable or "true" than any other kind of journalism. That is why we started a blog prize – to try to help people to find the interesting ones. This decision damages our capacity to understand ourselves just when we need new forms to develop. After Tuesday's ruling, would you blog about your workplace?"
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment