Albemarle County Blogger Will Not Be Required to Surrender Notes or Identify Anonymous Website Commentators

Buckingham County, VA – An Albemarle County blogger will not have to give up his notes or the names of individuals who posted comments on his website about a defamation lawsuit filed by Hollywood publicist Thomas Garrett against The Hook, a weekly Charlottesville magazine.
Although not a party to the defamation lawsuit, blogger Waldo Jaquith commented on it on his website, cvillenews.com, and allowed others to post remarks as well. The musings prompted Garrett’s lawyers to subpoena the records related to the postings, claiming that they may be relevant to his case against The Hook.
Three free speech organizations -- the ACLU of Virginia, the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression and Public Citizen -- joined forces to protect Jaquith’s notes, his sources and the identity of commentators, arguing that a blogger has the same right as any journalist not to be compelled to reveal background information and sources.
“It is important that the courts understand the journalistic role of bloggers,” said ACLU of Virginia Executive Director Kent Willis. “To expose the blogger’s sources and his anonymous commentators undermines the free speech function of the internet. If sources and background information may be readily obtained by any person involved in a lawsuit on nothing more than a hunch, the entire concept of freedom of the press is jeopardized.”
“Like it or not, it could very well be that bloggers, not television, radio or newspaper reporters, will soon be our principal source of information,” added Willis. “If we ignore the rights of bloggers now, the information sources we depend on most for the news in the future may not be protected by the First Amendment.”
Jaquith’s issue was resolved recently when the Garrett withdrew his defamation suit against The Hook, nullifying the basis for the subpoena.
“This case got resolved the easy way,” said Willis, “but the very fact that three of the nation’s premier free speech organizations offered to represent Mr. Jaquith should serve as notice that we and others are prepared to vigorously defend blogging the same way we would any other journalistic endeavor.”
To read the brief filed on Jaquith’s behalf in Buckingham County Circuit Court, go to http://www.acluva.org/docket/pleadings/jaquith.pdf.

Contact: Kent Willis, ACLU of Virginia Executive Director, (804) 644-8022