CBS - CBS NEWS WRITERS BLOCKED FROM "INAPPROPRIATE" WEBSITES

Writers working for CBS News have to work on computers on which access to certain "inappropriate" websites are blocked by data security experts, according to the CBS blog Public Eye. According to the blog, sites are blocked by keywords, like "sex" in the domain name. Phil Oester, the data security chief at the company, is quoted as saying: "The challenge is to allow reporters to do their work, but you don't want people browsing to porn sites in the middle of the day." If a reporter needs to access a blocked site, they must email a request, but even then, some of the requests may be turned down. "It could offend someone who is walking by your desk," Oester remarked. "They could end up filing a sexual harassment claim." He also indicated that he would like to block News Corp's social networking site MySpace. "Personally, I think that's just a big waste of time for people, but I'm hearing from our news reporters that they get on there, do reports about it, and do reports on things they've read on there," he says. "It's very difficult for us to block these sites."

20/06/2006