Shit barnes you just dont get it.. when you are doing investigative articles you push the limits..our media laws are pretty strict. Now I have never been sued. You write like you can tell the whole story. Fearless stuff. The stuff that Phil Kitchin writes.And the lawyers check it to ensure you havent pushed out the boundaries too much. The lawyers ARE conservative. So to get an email that asks journos to be conservative in the first place is just plain sad. and for the record - the lawyers hardly ever tinkered with my copy..

And I see that Rob Hosking - another scribe of note is also concerned.. so what does that say? I thought all the left were for freedom of speech and defended a fearless fourth estate.. These days its the fifth estate, the blogs who are riding the white chargers of truth.

Ahh, my dear wee boy, that would be telling.

He Sophie - if Catcus is amoebic then be very afraid.. Ascerbic she may be , but she has one of the finest intellects in the blogzone..

Hey guys, I was a journo and have today had a bit of a yack to a few scribes at the Herald. There is some concern about the emails. especially this bit

1. Conservative editorial approach

Editorial could take a more conservative approach to the subject matter and content of the risky or contentious articles. Where editorial identifies an issue or risk in an article the relevant passages could be proactively removed, or rewritten internally, to remove the perceived risk, as an alternative to obtaining legal advice on the risks of publication.

I blogged on it here.. http://roarprawn.blogspot.com/2009/11/publish-and-be-damned.html

Hell , Im glad Im a blogger and not a journo - thats all i can say.
To give the emails some context the Herald has had a hell of a lot of retractions and corrections lately.

In the main the emails look like a rev up apart from the very odious para above. I know of at least one other publication ( not APN ) who has taken the same line.