I happened to see on Yahoo! that today is World Press Freedom Day.

According to Yahoo!:

Bloggers are included in the list of journalists being celebrated on the Yahoo! site, including:

• Wael Abbas - Egypt–Blogger and human rights activist who blogs at Misr Digital
• Amira Al Hussaini - Bahrain–Journalist, editor, and blogger
• Yoani Sánchez - Cuba–Philologist and blogger known for her critical portrayal of life under the Cuban government

I thought it was interesting and slightly amusing that Wael Abbas was the first journalist listed by Yahoo! under the heading, “Celebrating Journalists.” Yahoo! had shut down two of his Yahoo! email accounts, calling him a “spammer.”

To all of my friends in journalism, today is your day. Write on!

This blurry photo of me with former Eastern Illinois University (EIU) Journalism Department Chairman Dan Thornburgh (DT) is so appropriate. The photo was taken on April 25, 2009 during the annual EIU Journalism Department Banquet.

Why is the photo appropriate? Because DT had trouble remembering who I was (it had been a few decades since we last talked with each other), and because the years have passed in a blur.

This year marked the 50th anniversary of the department’s founding, led by the tireless efforts of DT and those who followed, including John David Reed, James Tidwell and John Ryan.

I’m an EIU Journalism grad, and served on the university’s daily student newspaper, eventually having the honor of being named one of its editors. I’ve drifted away from EIU over the years, just as I drifted away from newspaper reporting.

Being back on campus last month was very meaningful to me, and seeing former classmates and instructors was great. Some things that I can share with any students who are graduating this year:

• Hold onto the friendships you’ve made. The people who seem so special to you now, really are that special.
• Keep your ego in check. You may have excelled at school, but don’t make too much of it. Down the road, you will remember the accomplishments, but they will have been overshadowed by others. The benefit isn’t usually from creating something that lasts, but learning how to create something worthwhile wherever you are at that point in life.
• Don’t stop learning. I graduated from college nearly 30 years ago, and if I hadn’t kept up with communication tools, techniques and trends, I would have been as useful and appreciated as an IBM Selectric Typewriter.

IABC Executive Board Vice Chair Mark Schumann, ABC, just wrote a post about the demise of the Rocky Mountain News newspaper in Denver, CO (USA). I commented briefly on Mark’s blog about my own perspective, but want to expand a bit here.

I was born in 1958 and grew up when newspapers were the dominant source for complete news coverage. Radio news reports, to me, were the irritating, five-minute interruptions that always seemed to come just when I was starting to enjoy the latest rock or pop hits. TV news was visually interesting at times, but otherwise flat and stiff.

Reading the newspaper was a family affair. I remember squirming next to my older brothers and sister, to find a spot on dad’s lap, while he read the Sunday comics to us–and often had to explain the joke. As I grew older, we discussed the local and national news (Chicago is never short of controversial news!), and savored the razor-sharp writing and reasoning of columnists like Mike Royko.

My brothers and I delivered newspapers to earn money. One of the benefits of a morning paper route, that just barely countered the daily 3 a.m. wake-up, was the time spent reading the newspapers after the route was finished. There, in the agency’s poorly lit, barely heated back area, I would sit on a wooden shelf/bench and take my time, devouring just about every word in the two daily newspapers.

As Mark mentioned in his post about the Rocky Mountain News, there was something about the smell of newspaper ink on my hands that I just loved. The ink got into my blood, and I pursued journalism as a college student at Eastern Illinois University.

The journalism professors there were required to have worked previously as a professional journalist. I heard first-hand stories of life as a newspaper reporter: the exciting and rewarding, and the mundane and frustrating. I even got to get ink on my hands again, while helping to print and distribute the daily student newspaper as a fill-in volunteer when the regular press crew or delivery staff weren’t available.

I spent a summer working as an intern at the Decatur Herald & Review. Then when I graduated, I accepted a position there as a reporter/photographer. Although my bosses and coworkers were some of the finest people I have ever met, I left the paper after only one year, because I “wanted to see some mountains.”

I called a college friend and told him that I was planning to move to Denver. That friend said, “I’ll call you back in a few minutes.” When he did, he told me that he had decided to move to Denver with me!

We used the Rocky Mountain News to look for work. My friend was more dedicated, and quickly found a very good job. Me, not so much. After a few months spent laboring at some fun, but not lucrative, “jobs,” I moved back to Chicago, leaving behind a love of the mountains and newspapers in Denver.

Just last night, I discussed with my wife whether we should cancel our subscription to the Chicago Tribune. We just don’t read it much, and unopened newspapers too often get tossed in the recycling bin. But there is something about the physical newspaper—and the journalists who worked so hard to publish it—that makes it nearly impossible for me to let go.

But times have changed. Perhaps nothing says that better than the fact that the links I have provided here to the newspapers all go to electronic web pages. You won’t get ink on your fingers from typing in the URLs. Maybe that should make all of us a little sad.

Journalists, bloggers and some corporate legal departments are concerned about a recent ruling by a federal appeals court that may lead to changes in libel law.

As reported by Boston Globe reporter Jonathan Saltzman, the Feb 13 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston would allow a former salesman at Staples to sue the company for libel. The former salesman, Alan S. Noonan, believes that he was libeled by an email sent by a Staples vice president to about 1,500 employees stating that the salesman had been fired for violations of company procedures regarding expenses reimbursements.

According to the Boston Globe reporter:

Although the decision did not involve a news outlet, it has alarmed journalists, bloggers, and media law specialists, who worry that it could discourage news organizations from pursuing true stories that might cast subjects in a bad light.

When I was a journalism major at Eastern Illinois University, I paid attention during Communications Law class. I knew that I might have to walk a delicate legal line some day, and wanted to understand how far I could go in telling the “truth” without fear of being successfully sued for libel.

This current case has an interesting twist because the judges drew upon a relatively obscure 1902 state law when reaching their decision to allow the libel suit to proceed. That 1902 state law says truth is a defense against libel unless the plaintiff can show “actual malice” by the person publishing the statement. But the definition of “actual malice” is not the same as the one taught in j-schools.

I remember learning in Comm. Law that before a public figure can overcome a journalist’s First Amendment right to free speech in a libel case, “actual malice” has to be proven. That would mean that the journalist acted in reckless disregard for the truth, or knew a published statement was false.

But the Staples suit benefits from Massachusetts law that defines “actual malice” as “malevolent intent or ill will.” According to the Boston Globe story:

Noonan might be able to persuade a jury that the company demonstrated ill will; the Staples vice president who sent the email had never referred to a fired employee by name in a mass email before, and jurors might conclude he “singled out Noonan in order to humiliate him,” the court wrote.

So although people like the appellate lawyer for the fired Staples employee point out that the ruling applies only to lawsuits by private figures against private defendants—and not journalists—journalists are taking note. The Boston Globe reports that 51 news organizations have filed a friend-of-the-court brief saying that the decision, if allowed to stand, “will create a precedent that hinders the media’s ability to rely on truthful publication to avoid defamation liability.”

At EIU’s daily student newspaper, the Daily Eastern News, our motto was, “Tell the Truth, and Don’t Be Afraid.” I hope that this ruling does not impact journalism students in the future, who might be told in Communication Law to “Tell the Truth, But Not If You’re Going to Get Sued.”

My thanks to Evan Hill and the EIU Journalism list-serv for passing on this news.

The graphic to the left features (from left): John Ryan, advisor of Student Publications at my alma mater, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, Ill.; Jim Tidwell, chairman of the Journalism Department at EIU; and Rick Popely, reporter at the Chicago Tribune and an EIU journalism alum.

The latest CommaKazi Speek podcast features interviews of these two former and one current journalists (the two former journalists teach journalism at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Il). We discuss the current state of journalism and what the next wave of journalism graduates may face.

I conducted the interviews on July 18, after a charity golf outing at EIU, my alma mater, to benefit the Gene Seymour Journalism Scholarship. (No thanks to me, my foursome managed to win third place.)

As I drive south tomorrow to my alma mater in Charleston, Ill., I’ll no doubt enjoy memories of my years spent there as a journalism major.

But 2008 isn’t 1980 (the year I graduated), and I expect to have some frank discussions with former journalism instructors and colleagues (and perhaps, some current students) about the current state of the profession. I haven’t walked into a newsroom in about a decade, but I suspect that many are subdued, because of the decline in print advertising and economic forces that are behind continuing staff reductions in many newspapers across the country. Some long-time professionals have had enough—as evidenced by this July 14 article regarding a resignation at the Chicago Tribune.

The workforce and business environment continue to change, not always for the better. Although my B.A. degree from Eastern Illinois University may not be as high as it once was, it remains indispensable to me. I’ve been committed for many years to the concept of being a “life-long learner.” That led me to earn accreditation through the International Association of Business Communicators, and to hone skills in newer communication methods and technologies, including blogging and podcasting.

My professional and personal life today doesn’t look anything like I would have imagined it turning out when I graduated from EIU. Challenges, disappointments, minor successes and major “growth opportunities” continue to be part of my work and life.

Tomorrow, however, will not be a day to dwell on what life isn’t…it will be a day to enjoy life as it is.