First
hearing for Breeze staffers will be Thursday

The two
student journalists charged with trespassing at a James Madison University
dormitory will get a chance to officially state their side of the case Thursday
before a hearing officer at the Harrisonburg university.

Tim
Chapman, editor-in-chief of The Breeze, and reporter Katie Hibson are scheduled
to appear before a JMU Judicial Affairs officer Thursday afternoon, according
to Brad Jenkins, publications coordinator for JMU. They face charges of trespassing,
disorderly conduct and failure to comply with an official request.

The
charges stem from the newspaper’s investigation into reports of a peeping Tom
at Hillside Hall last month. Hibson claimed she was invited into the dorm to
conduct interviews and followed all university procedures before being asked to
leave by the dorm’s resident adviser. Chapman joined her later that day at the
dorm when they said they were told to leave by the dorm’s director, who also
threatened to call university police.

Chapman
and Hibson were notified of the charges in an e-mail from JMU Judicial Affairs.

According
to JMU policy, the hearing officer will explain the charges to the students and
hear their accounts of the issue. The officer then will determine if the
students are responsible for their actions. If responsibility is determined,
then the students could face undetermined sanctions. Students have the right to
appeal the officer’s ruling to the JMU Judicial Council.

Chapman
and Hibson have retained counsel through the Student Press Law Center. Their
attorney, Alice Neff Lucan, declined to comment extensively on the matter,
saying only that the case has generated a “great deal of interest,” and they
believe the issue is First Amendment-related — the hindrance of student
journalists to investigate and report on activities around the campus.

JMU
maintains the issue has nothing to do with the First Amendment. It is, a JMU
spokesman says, a matter of not following school policy.

The case
has drawn the attention of media advocates across Virginia. Both the Virginia
Press Association and the Virginia Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional
Journalists have weighed in on the matter, supporting Chapman and Hibson, and
asking JMU to drop the charges.

Virginia
Press Women also has announced its support for the students. In a letter to JMU
Judicial Affairs, VPW president Gwen Woolf wrote that the charges should be
dropped because the “greater good outweighs the narrow interpretation of school
policy.”

“It would
be a shame to mar the students’ record when they were sincerely putting their
journalism education and integrity to good use,” Woolf wrote. “Imposing
sanctions on them would reflect poorly on the university in the public eye.

The
Breeze, with a distribution of around 9,500, is published on Mondays and
Thursdays throughout the academic year. It is an Associate member of the
Virginia Press Association.

Woodbridge,
DC reporters will witness Elliott execution

Staff
writers from the News & Messenger in Woodbridge and The Washington Post
were selected earlier this week as print-media witnesses for the scheduled Nov.
17 execution of Larry Bill Elliott.

Uriah Kiser
and Josh White were chosen in a lottery drawing conducted Nov. 2 by the
Virginia Press Association. Kiser represents a newspaper whose coverage area
includes the scene of the crime. White, of The Post, was chosen from the
remaining witness names in the second round of the two-tier lottery system,
which is open to all Active-category VPA members.

Elliott is
scheduled to die for the 2003 murders of a Prince William County couple.

href="http://www.vpa.net/index.php/membership/article/witness-pool/">VPA has
set up a Web page
with general information about the execution witness pool. The page also has a
link to the State Police Press Pass application.

Questions
about the witness pool should be directed to href="mailto:stephaniem@vpa.net">Stephanie McCraw style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> at (804) 521-7578.

Boucher
online privacy bill expected soon

A
Virginia congressman says he will introduce legislation that will establish a
set of privacy rights for Internet users, including rules addressing online
advertising and the methods Web sites use to collect user data.

The
legislation, from Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, is expected before year’s end.
Boucher said he has bipartisan support for the measure.

The bill
would prevent Web sites from sharing user information with “unrelated” third
parties without the user’s knowledge. That, in turn, could prevent Web
publishers — including newspaper sites — from being able to place
online ads that collect and share user information without first getting
permission from the user to do so.

Media
groups say the methods of opting out on behavioral ads have been in place for
years, but Boucher claims those practices do not go far enough. He wants clear,
concise information to be placed on the sites that spell out the methods of
collection, use and disclosure of user data with third parties.

The
Newspaper Association of America says that such opt-in mechanisms “may not be
workable in practice and stifle an important business model before it has fully
matured. The NAA also said that having an opt-in pop-up screen appear on any
site that uses third-party behavioral advertising would “degrade the user
experience and make it difficult to communicate the benefits of behavioral or
interest-based advertising.”

Today
is deadline for 11/12 Online News Workshop

The
deadline to sign up for the Nov. 12 Online News Workshop is today.

The
workshop, co-sponsored by the Virginia Press Association and the Online News
Association, is set for 10 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. at VPA Headquarters in Glen Allen.
As of today, VPA still needs about 15 more registrations to ensure the workshop
goes off as planned.

Topics to
be addressed include social networking and its effect on political coverage,
paid content, microlocal sites, the legalities of online postings, data
aggregation and social media in the newsroom. The 75-minute sessions will run
concurrently in two tracks.

Confirmed
presenters include Ken Sands, a digital media consultant based in Washington,
who will lead two sessions; Briana E. Thibeau, an attorney with the Washington
firm of Dow Lohnes PLLC; Todd Jackson and Mason Adams, both of The Roanoke
Times; Ryan Sholin, director of news innovation for Publish2 in Northern
Virginia; Troy Thibodeaux, of The Associated Press; Gwen Mason, a Roanoke City
Council member; and Jeff Reyer, a Republican strategist.

Cost to
attend is $30 and includes lunch.

href="http://www.vpa.net/index.php/education/article/13712/">A registration
form and agenda
are available on the VPA Web site. Questions should be directed to href="mailto:kimw@vpa.net">Kim Woodward at (804) 521-7574

VPA
offers ‘Pay in Advance’ program for conferences

The
Virginia Press Association has launched an initiative to encourage members to
attend its two major conferences in 2010. 



The “Pay
in Advance” program will be offered to newspapers and their employees who want
to invest in their professional development opportunities at the conferences.
Members who opt for the program have a choice in how they can participate
— a four-month billing cycle or a two-payment cycle, both of which would
allow members to have their fees paid in advance of either conference.

The
four-month cycle would begin in November and run through February. The two-payment
plan is based on invoices sent in November and January.

The 2010
News Conference & Annual Meeting will be held next March at the Hotel
Roanoke & Conference Center. The Advertising Conference will be held the
following month at the Renaissance Portsmouth Hotel. 



Members
can include conference registration fees and VPA meal functions in the Pay in
Advance program. If desired, overnight accommodations also can be included in
the plan for $135.52 per night (News Conference) or $141.25 per night (Advertising
Conference). The room rates include all taxes.

For more
information about the Pay in Advance program, contact style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:blue'> href="mailto:kimw@vpa.net">Kim Woodward style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> at (804) 521-7574.