Blogging policies update

Regarding my post yesterday about campus media blogging policies, Kiyoshi Martinez at CampusByline shares one that the Daily Illini apparently adopted as an internal memo last semester.

These rules seem a bit draconian:

llini Media policy on personal blogs and Web sites:
* No Illini Media resources may be used in creating, updating or editing personal blogs or Web sites.
* Illini Media employees may not create, edit or update personal blogs or Web sites during the course of their work day, work shift or work assignment.
* Content of personal blogs or Web sites must not be based upon internal conversations, discussions and/or decisions.
* An employee’s affiliation with Illini Media or any of its units should not be the focus of his or her personal blog or Web site.
* Employees may not post material on personal blogs or Web sites intended for publication/broadcast or material that has been previously published/broadcast.
* Any employee violating this policy is subject to immediate termination of employment with the company.

(the DI rules were leaked at Peoria Pundit)

Martinez knows the policy first hand, as it stopped him from blogging while he worked there. And now that he’s graduated, he makes no qualms about the bad taste it left in his mouth:

My take on blogging policies like the DI’s is that it forces your employees to take the names off of the things they write and go anonymous, which in turn is like unleashing a beast that’s never going to be muzzled. I’m not saying that “all newspapers must have blogs” but it’s unreasonable to think that you can shut people up. Plus, there’s the question of what is a blog, can you check your MySpace or Facebook account and leave messages, do you monitor your employees’ surfing habits?

As I’ve stated before, a blogging policy should be developed with the input of the staff. There is *nothing* that destroys trust in a newsroom more than someone shooting off at the blog about some sort of internal discussion for the entire world to read and look up via Google. But cutting staffers off from even *having* a personal weblog is going to the opposite extreme. Pay is poor at most campus media outlets. Acting like big brother regarding means of personal expression won’t make for a good work environment.

Martinez encourages student media to just make sure that students don’t break journalistic standards or write anything libelous. But staff relations are much more than libel.

At our advisers workshop in DC, an adviser mentioned an incident in which one candidate for EIC had written some very nasty things about another student staffer on a weblog, only to have that material surface prior to the EIC candidacy. Not only did this student not become EIC, but the student’s relationship with other staffers was no doubt irreparably damaged.

It’s a fine line, and one that needs much more thought and experimentation before we can say the college media profession has handled this issue well.

As for blogging policies, I’m still looking for some good examples. Sadly, I don’t think the DI policy is quite it.

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