By Andrew Kreig
Editor, Justice Integrity Project / Washington, DC

The nation’s media provided remarkably little support to an Alabama journalist jailed for five months while he fought against prior restraint of his investigative reporting.

A part-time state judge freed blogger Roger Shuler March 26 after Shuler spiked columns alleging an affair between a reputed congressional candidate and a lobbyist.

With rare exceptions, journalism groups and news outlets failed to protest the flagrantly illegal treatment the hand-picked judge inflicted on Shuler and his readers.

Abuses included the writer’s arrest and beating at his home Oct. 23 after plaintiffs accused him of libel. The mug shot shows the defendant after the beating. Judge Claud Neilson then ordered Shuler held without bail on two contempt of court charges for failure to spike his columns.  MORE