Whether you are an old-school journalist looking to move online or a Net native with journalistic aspirations, chances are at some point you’re going to need a lawyer. The Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard’s Berkman Center is aware of that and wants to help.
To qualify for assistance, writers must be doing work that meets basic journalistic standards and is in the public interest. At this time, the network is intended for people who have U.S. legal issues, Ardia said. Print or broadcast journalists who have been laid off by media outlets and who want to set up online are part of its clientele, as are employed journalists who just want an online presence.
But Ardia also wants to help the blogger or “citizen journalist” who might run afoul of the law through ignorance or inexperience. “We really want them especially to come to us because they’re the ones who don’t even have the training or the intuition to raise red flags when they are writing a story about a local politician or a local developer,” Ardia said, “and they are very likely to say something that could get them into libel trouble.”