Public Citizen just announced that the blog ban/censorship case against the Commonwealth has been settled:
WASHINGTON, DC – June 17 – 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 Tuesday 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.
This announcement doesn’t carry the weight it normally would, since the governor and crew announced months ago that the ban would be lifted.
4 responses so far ↓
1 briansmith // Jun 17, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Jennifer Moore wins one for the bloggers. Should we declare a moratorium on snarky comments?
2 Not My Real Name // Jun 17, 2008 at 10:29 pm
This is not a wise decision. Unless you are a member of senior management or a public information/public relations person who routinely monitors news coverage, you have no need to view blogs at work if you are a state employee.
3 Jake // Jun 17, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Actually, there’s no way for you to know that, Not My. Mainly because you have no way of knowing what every state job entails.
(FYI: Very little state traffic hits this site throughout the day)
4 David Adams // Jun 18, 2008 at 12:17 am
I think we need a new blog ban. The state ban was fantastic free advertising.
Leave a Comment