links for 2006-12-02

The world’s first Freedom of Information Act took effect in Sweden-Finland 240 years ago. Inspired by the politician and philosopher Anders Chydenius. The think tank bearing his name has published a report to celebrate this important anniversary.

Andrew Grant-Adamson: “To suggest that a blog is a suitable reaction to a breaking story where your audience needs fast information is typical of too much of the woolly thinking around about the purpose of newspaper blogs.”

“Yahoo! has struck a deal to begin offering clips of BBC News video to US web users.”

A USC study finds that “43 per cent of internet users who are members of online communities ‘feel as strongly’ about their virtual community as their real world community.”

“PerezHilton.com, a popular entertainment blog, has been slapped with a $7.5 million lawsuit from X17, Hollywood’s largest photo agency.”

Peter Wilby makes some important points about the lack of recruitment advertising in Press Gazette. The informal recruitment system in journalism “may help explain why growing numbers of journalists seem to come from a closed metropolitan circle.”