January 23, 2008 5:34 PM PST
Tribune employees can surf freely now
In a memo from the Tribune's owner Sam Zell, which was recently posted by Jim Romenesko at Poynter, Zell announced that employees at the company's newspapers would no longer be hindered by the internet filters that so many companies have implemented to prevent their workers from engaging in personal websurfing. Zell writes,
"I do not see how a member of the Fourth Estate, dedicated to protecting the First Amendment, can censor what its own employees and partners can see. I have instructed that all content filters be removed. You are now exposed to the dangers of You Tube and Facebook. Please use your best judgment."It's not often that I applaud the actions of the bean counters in the mainstream media, but Zell's actions in this matter deserve recognition and respect. It's rather abominable that journalists in any publication would find themselves in a world wide web with fences restricting their access; it's frustrating that any employer would engage in such tactics, but it's encouraging to know that reporters at the LA Times and other Tribune publications will no longer have to leave the office to research a story deemed off-limits by the content filters implemented by their IT department. Well done Zell ...
Josh Wolf is a journalist, an activist, and a life-long troublemaker. Having spent 226 days in jail to protect his work product, he knows first hand that a free press doesn't come cheap. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. 
