Minnesota Monitor: May 5

Sister to the South: Minnesota Monitor’s family just got bigger: the Center for Independent Media launched the online news magazine Iowa Independent last week. Like Minnesota Monitor and Colorado Confidential, the Iowa site has hired a slate of New Journalism Fellows who are being trained in investigative reporting, follow a code of ethics based on that of the Society of Professional Journalists, and are supported by journalistic mentors and editors. While the Minnesota and Colorado sites are well positioned to cover the Democratic and Republican nominating conventions in 2008, the Iowa Independent will have front-row seats for the state’s first-in-the-nation caucuses in January.

House Shield Law introduced: Congress is again looking into a shield law to further protect reporters’ confidential sources — and it’ll cover bloggers who do journalistic work. Earlier versions of the Free Flow of Information Act limited shield protections to individuals tied to  specific media institutions, while the new proposal expands protections to anyone involved with “gathering, preparing, collecting, photographing, recording, writing, editing, reporting or publishing of news or information that concerns local, national or international events or other matters of public interest for dissemination to the public.”

The St. Cloud Times wrote the provision does not apply if the protections “breach national security, cause death or significant harm, or shield a source who has illegally revealed trade secrets, personal health or financial information.”

At a press conference on May 2, Rep. Mike Pence, a conservative from Indiana who co-sponsored the bill with Rep. Rick Boucher of Virginia, said that 30 years after Watergate, the press can’t assure confidentiality to anonymous sources as they once could.  “[W]e face the real danger that there may never be another Deep Throat. The protections provided by the Free Flow of Information Act are necessary so that members of the media can bring forward information to the American public without fear of retribution or prosecution.”

Altweeklies honor their own: City Pages picked up kudos from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies in the form of three finalist nods in the 2007 AltWeekly Awards. Recognitions came for cover design (Nick Vleck), food writing (Dara Moskowitz), and website design. Winners will be announced at the AAN convention June 14