We have some important news to share from the Digital Media Law Project. After seven years of providing legal assistance to independent journalism through various methods, the DMLP will soon spin off its most effective initiatives and cease operation as a stand-alone project within the Berkman Center.

Tomorrow, Harvard University will shut down for its annual Winter Recess, marking the end of the calendar year for those of us at the Digital Media Law Project.  It seems like this year has flown by, with so much that we have done and so much that we still plan to do.

It is with mixed emotions that the Digital (nee Citizen) Media Law Project has to announce that Arthur Bright, our Research Attorney and Editor, will be leaving us for a new venture.  Arthur has been working with us for more than a year in his current position; prior to that, he worked with our project as a student intern.  We will miss his presence and his contributions to our project, in particular his journalistic skills and his careful attention to international freedom of speech issues. 

We are delighted to announce that, with the generous support of the Corydon B. Dunham Fellowship Fund of the Harvard Law School, the Berkman Center has named our own staff attorney, Andy Sellars, as the inaugural Dunham First Amendment Fellow.

The following is cross-posted with permission from our good friends at the Cyberlaw Clinic at Harvard Law School. The original post can be found here. 

The Citizen Media Law Project is extraordinarily pleased to announce that Andy Sellars, our Staff Attorney, was announced this past weekend to be the 2011 winner of the time-honored and prestigious Jan Jancin Award!

On May 20, 2007, I wrote my first blog post. It also happened to be the first post on this blog. Entitled "Time to Launch," I agonized for days over what to write and struggled with the fear of putting my words out to the entire world (if you remember your first time blogging, you know exactly how I felt). Fortunately, nobody came after me with a pitchfork and I gradually learned to control that fear. I also learned that if I surrounded myself with bright and talented lawyers they would make me look good.

I'm excited to welcome Jeff Hermes, the Citizen Media Law Project's new Assistant Director.

With the help of Harvard Law School's Cyberlaw Clinic, the Citizen Media Law Project and a coalition of New England media and advocacy organizations submitted an amicus curiae brief last week to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, seeking to ensure a public right of access to inquest materials that will allow journalists, bloggers, and other news gatherers to inform citizens on matters of public concern.