Legal and Ethical Issues of Blogging

Blogging raises several ethical and legal issues including:

1) Should bloggers adopt a journalistic code of ethics?
Rebecca Blood argues in favour of journalistic ethics for bloggers. Apple sues a blogger to reveal his sources.

2) Who owns the copyright on a blog?
There are some useful hints and guidance in 14 Copyright Tips for Bloggers. Bloggers FAQ provides further advice on Intellectual Property and explains the Creative Commons Licence.

3) What forms of legal sanction might bloggers face?
These include being sued for libel or even for comments from readers revealing confidential information.

Bloggers have been arrested in several countries including France, Egypt, Iran and China. Journalists in Zimbabwe face problems as well.

Sometimes blogs which are critical of government policies become invisible or inaccessable , including recently in Ethiopia.

In the USA bloggers may lose their jobs if they blog about their work.
In France very recently where a blogger was sacked because of her personal blog -- she in turn is taking her ex-employer to the employment tribunal. Perhaps she needed to read "How Not to get Fired for Blogging".

4) Is it possible to blog anonymously?
It may be according to the "Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents" from Reporters