French-Canadian blogger is a journalist, court says
Excerpts from the NYT report:
Charles LeBlanc, a rooming house resident who lives on social assistance in Fredericton, New Brunswick, received a court decision establishing his journalistic credentials.
Mr. LeBlanc went to Saint John, New Brunswick, to report on a protest against a meeting of chamber of commerce and board of trade members from Atlantic Canada and New England. Protestors stormed the meeting. Mr. LeBlanc was among those arrested.
ìMembers of the so called mainstream media were taking photographs and filming in the same area without interference from the police,î the judge wrote in a 20-page decision. ìI believe itís fair to say that the defendant was doing nothing wrong at the time he was approached by Sergeant Parks and placed under arrest. He was simply plying his trade, gathering photographs and information for his blog alongside other reporters.î
The judge also said that the police had no right to delete about 200 photos stored on Mr. LeBlancís camera.
I can’t realy play the identity politics card on this story until I go back and learn more French, but M. LeBlanc - salut!