On Sept. 19, the Media Bloggers Association announced the launch of an ambitious program called BlogInsure: “a first of its kind liability insurance program for bloggers which provides coverage for all forms of defamation, invasion of privacy and copyright infringement or similar.”
MBA president Robert Cox said that for the vast majority of bloggers, the insurance package will cost $540 per year (after the $25 annual MBA dues.) However, some members (those who do certain kinds of blogging that have historically attracted more legal threats) will probably have to pay higher premiums. Those risky blog types include:
- Investigative reporting
- Group weblogs
- Highly profitable weblogs (making in the range of $10,000 per year or more from the blog)
- Coverage of the pharmaceutical or healthcare industries, real estate developers, or local politicians
Also, according to the BlogInsure FAQ, this insurance is associated with blog, not bloggers. Therefore, bloggers who run multiple blogs must insure each separately.
To try to prevent legal threats, MBA also is offering a trial “legal hotline” program to insured bloggers. This is a Web-based extranet where bloggers can submit questions and get answers from lawyers. This service is operated by the law firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP, and overseen by Sonnenschein partner Blaine Kimrey. “This service is brand new. We don’t know yet what the demand will be, so the law firm has agreed to try it out to see if it’s a manageable amount of hours for them. If it works out for all concerned, we’ll probably re-up on this,” said Cox.
In order to qualify for this discounted insurance (and for MBA membership), bloggers must first pass a test proving their familiarity with the core tenets of media law as applied to online media. That test is the final assessment of a new free course offered through Poynter’s News University: Online Media Law: The Basics for Bloggers and Other Online Publishers.
According to Cox, bloggers who apply for MBA membership are asked to take the NewsU course. MBA requests dues payment only after applicants complete the course (but bloggers may opt out of the course, and the application process, at any time). In order for MBA membership to be approved, applicants must complete the assessment test at the end of the course and submit their test scores to MBA.
MBA is offering BlogInsure through an exclusive deal with Media/Professional Insurance, a business unit of the Select Markets Division of AXIS Insurance.
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