<---Meet the DA. Very chilling story. Bloggers beware...
Source:New York Times
A grand jury subpoena sent by prosecutors in the Bronx earlier this year sought information to help identify people blogging anonymously on a Web site about New York politics called Room 8.
A grand jury subpoena sent by prosecutors in the Bronx earlier this year sought information to help identify people blogging anonymously on a Web site about New York politics called Room 8.
The subpoena carried a warning in capital letters that disclosing its very existence “could impede the investigation being conducted and thereby interfere with law enforcement” — implying that if the bloggers blabbed, they could be prosecuted.
“We were totally perplexed,” said Ben Smith, who co-founded Room 8 with Gur Tsabar. (The site calls itself an “imaginary neighbor” to the press room — Room 9 — in City Hall in New York.) The two promptly began looking for a lawyer.
“We knew enough to be scared.”
This, of course, is a blogger’s nightmare: enforced silence and the prospect of jail time. The district attorney eventually withdrew the subpoena and lifted the gag requirement after the bloggers threatened to sue. But the fact that the tactic was used at all raised alarm bells for some free speech advocates.
The demand for secrecy raised the unnerving prospect that prosecutors could quietly investigate anyone who posts comments online, while the person making those comments is unaware of and unable to respond to the risk. The tactic also robs bloggers of one of their most powerful weapons: the chance to spread the word and turn the legal attack into an online cause célèbre.
From Room 8 blog:
From Room 8 blog:
This January, we received a subpoena (.pdf) from the Bronx District Attorney, Robert Johnson, demanding identifying details of a Room Eight blogger who wrote under the name “Republican Dissident,” as well as the authors of a dozen comments on his posts. Equally chilling, the subpoena contained a legend (above) implicitly threatening us with prosecution if we disclosed its existence.
Last week, we won our legal battle to preserve the blogger’s and commenters’ anonymity, but the story is a cautionary tale in how – whether deliberately or not -- a local prosecutor appears to have been able to intimidate an anonymous, small-scale local critic into silence.
The DA must have time on his hands. I have never heard such a case. And the DA wasting taxpayers' money on going after anonymous bloggers??? This is certainly an act of intimidation.
1 comment:
I have watch DA Johnson grow for many years while living in New Jersey. He stood for Justice and force for truth and I see along came the Bush Administration. Many good honest people have turned to the dark side as Johnson has done. This man sees a change is coming and like other African Americans he's looking to move up. When a sick Government can sit up Spitzer, Johnson sees he has the background to get a top spot. Problem is the deal with the Devil and that means keeping the criminal secrets of the Republican Leaders. Johnson will do as he told to make sure those secrets of crime and even murder don't come to light. When this Corrupt Administration leaves you'll see many people speaking up on the things they have seen and things they were ordered to do. DA Johnson is willing to sell out Justice for a top job.
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