Blogger vor Gericht und in der Kritik

--- Da prasselt ja wieder mal so einiges auf die internationale Blogosphäre ein: In Iran stehen Blogger zum einen vor Gericht, weil sie anders als die traditionellen Medien kein Blatt vor dem Mund genommen haben: A group of journalists working with pro-reform online media will go on trial in Iran next week accused of spreading propaganda against the Islamic state, a judiciary official was quoted as saying Tuesday. At least nine journalists writing on online journals known as Web logs and news-based Internet sites have been detained by the hard-line judiciary since September, newspapers and judiciary officials have said. ... The Internet has become a refuge for reformist journalists who lost their jobs when the judiciary closed more than 100 pro-reform publications in the past four years. Reformists, including President Mohammad Khatami, have denounced the arrests as politically motivated and accused hard-liners of trying to curtail limited press freedoms. The journalists will face charges of "propagating against the regime, acting against national security, disturbing public opinion and insulting religious sanctities," the Etemad daily said last week. Nemat Ahmadi, lawyer of some of the detainees, has said they are being held in solitary confinement and have not been allowed to meet their lawyers or families.

In ganz anderer Form geht derweil der ehemalige CBS-Korrespondent Eric Engberg mit den amerikanischen Wahlbloggern ins Gericht und vergleicht sie mit üblen Parasiten: As the election campaign unfolded, operators of some of the internet’s politics-oriented blogs, no doubt high on the perfume of many "hits" and their own developing sense of community, envisioned a future when they would diminish then replace the traditional media as the nation’s primary source of political news and commentary. One of the more self-important of these blog-ops, Andrew Sullivan, declared in a newspaper article in September that the internet upstarts had become, along with cable-TV, the new "powerbrokers in American politics and culture," primed to unseat "old media." ... The public is now assaulted by news and pretend-news from many directions, thanks to the now infamous "information superhighway." But the ability to transmit words, we learned during the Citizens Band radio fad of the 70’s, does not mean that any knowledge is being passed along. One of the verdicts rendered by election night 2004 is that, given their lack of expertise, standards and, yes, humility, the chances of the bloggers replacing mainstream journalism are about as good as the parasite replacing the dog it fastens on. Hm, nur, weil die Blogger die Umfragen vor den Wahllokalen erst mal geglaubt haben, muss man doch nicht so einen Aufstand machen und den weit gehend künstlichen Konflikt zwischen traditionellen und neuen Medien wieder aufkochen. Denn die meisten Blogger machen ja auch gar kein Hehl daraus, dass sie auch mit "Parasiten" der klassischen Medienwelt sind -- irgendwo müssen sie ihr Futter ja herbringen. Ob da eher noch die Nachwehen der aufklärerischen Erfahrungen von CBS mit der Blogosphäre im Wahlkampf anklingen?