Free Speech and Twitter
There is a great piece in Sunday's New York Times on free speech and social media via the ever ubiquitous Twitter. Basically, it involves the tricky issue of a British law called a super injunction, which prevents the media there from naming a soccer star involved in a seedy gossip story. The only problem is thousands of Twitterers are openly flaunting the injunction.
And that leads to the question of free speech and ethics. While people love to treat the idea of twitter as stone-clad news, it is basically a gossip site. Yes, real journalists go on there. And yes, they sometimes blur the lines of ethics themselves. However, one of the tenets of journalism long has been that reporters, writers, editors and the like were ordinary citizens asking questions granted under the idea of free speech.
Does that make them any different than the thousands of people on Twitter spreading news? It is a tough call. It will be interesting to see how this one plays out.
And that leads to the question of free speech and ethics. While people love to treat the idea of twitter as stone-clad news, it is basically a gossip site. Yes, real journalists go on there. And yes, they sometimes blur the lines of ethics themselves. However, one of the tenets of journalism long has been that reporters, writers, editors and the like were ordinary citizens asking questions granted under the idea of free speech.
Does that make them any different than the thousands of people on Twitter spreading news? It is a tough call. It will be interesting to see how this one plays out.
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