In follow-up to my post, yesterday, about the Supreme Court of Canada “responsible communication” ruling that establishes libel protections for journalists and bloggers, I’d like to add that this will likely reduce time-to-publish for media organizations that have typically relied on clearance from their legal departments before going public with public interest and investigative reports.
Michael Geist has published more details about the defence on his blog and included his thoughts about this decision being a significant victory for freedom of expression. In his post he includes the following from the ruling:
…the traditional media are rapidly being complemented by new ways of communicating on matters of public interest, many of them online, which do not involve journalists. These new disseminators of news and information should, absent good reasons for exclusion, be subject to the same laws as established media outlets.
