(WMR)—Roger Shuler, the Alabama blogger and former Birmingham newspaper reporter, was released from an Alabama jail on March 26.
On October 16, 2013, WMR reported, “Roger Shuler, a veteran journalist with 13 years with the Birmingham Post-Herald and a graduate of the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, one of America’s top journalism education institutions, now knows what it’s like to be a journalist in a Third World country like Sierra Leone or Honduras . . . After writing a series of articles on his website Legal Schnauzer, Shuler has been hit with a “nuisance subpoena” by prospective GOP U.S. House candidate Rob Riley, the son of Alabama’s former Governor Bob Riley, the man whose political chicanery and vote count rigging cost Democratic Governor Don Siegelman his job in the 2002 election and paved the way for Bob Riley to move into the Governor’s Mansion in Montgomery for two terms.”
That report was followed by our November 14, 2013 report, “Roger Shuler, who runs a blog called Legal Schnauzer, has been undaunting in his investigations of Alabama’s GOP, what many have referred as the “Dixie Mafia.” Shuler was arrested on October 23, beaten by Shelby County, Alabama, sheriff’s deputies, and jailed as a result of an order issued by a dubiously-appointed special judge named Claud Neilson. Shuler was charged with contempt of court because he refused to take down from his website a story about Rob Riley and an alleged affair with an Alabama lobbyist named Liberty Duke.”
Shuler’s case was virtually ignored by many of the organizations dedicated to protecting freedom of the press in the United States, including the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Press Club, and others. After Shuler agreed to remove the reports on his blog that incurred the wrath of Alabama Republicans, he was released from jail.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
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Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).
