[Foundation-l] Wikinews is giving out press credentials

Sat Nov 12 13:56:39 UTC 2005

Jean-Baptiste Soufron wrote:
> > So an organization cannot, without permission of government-sanctioned
> > bodies, send people to observe and report on events?  We're not talking
> > about official government press passes here (the U.S. analog is
> > state-issued passes), simply a piece of paper that indicates the person
> > in question has the sanction of Wikinews to report on their behalf.
> > People are free to ignore that piece of paper of course, and demand
> > something government-issued, but are you saying that the mere act of
> > issuing that piece of paper is illegal,
>
> I am just saying that not only can it be illegal, but also that it will
> certainly engage the liability of the foundation.
>
> Unions accreditating journalists will certainly be mad at it (as in
> France), and it would picture the foundation as a liable editor rather
> as a not-liable publisher.
>

Would make thing easier if the the word journalist is never used?
What the matter if a person is just accredited as external
(unprofesional) collaborator?

Form Italian laws being unprofessional there is no need to be register
(actualle there is not the need to pay the fee to be register) as
journalist and being declared that is an external collaborator (and
not an employed by the newsagency) should limit very much any action
againt the comunity or the foundaton.

By the way wikinews editor act just exactly like an external
unprofessional collaborator. The only difference is that they made it
for free and that there is not  a editor-board approvation (actually
this last point is not irrivelant)

About an eventual legal reponsability of the foundation a possible
(but unfortunately not free of charge) solution would be to required
accredited Wikinewsers to have an insurance to cover their civil
responsabilities and foundation civil responsabilities.

As for any other thng like this it would very interesting to know what
legislation is in acts (since every country could claim that their own
legislation should be consider valid).

AnyFile