Truly, the ordeal endured by Ben Smith and Gur Tsabar, who founded the Room 8 blog, confirms every blogger’s worst nightmare of what can happen when politicians, government officials and, even, private citizens dead set on silencing opponents or throttling freedom of speech can do. Mr. Smith, who also produced the Ditmas Park Blog with his wife, appears to have been the victim of what certainly appears to be an abuse of power by the Bronx District Attorney in trying to identify opponents of political allies posting anonymously on Room 8. They speak out today in the Daily News:

“The most disturbing part of the subpoena directed at our New York political blog, Room Eight, was the legend, in all capital letters: “DO NOT DISCLOSE THE EXISTENCE OF THIS REQUEST…” The subpoena came in the mail in January from Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson. It demanded information about one of the bloggers and a dozen commenters on Room Eight, a group political blog where political insiders and junkies from all over the city write about – and often criticize – the city’s politicians…The information Johnson’s office wanted could have identified one anonymous critic, “Republican Dissident,” who had been directing his fire at Johnson’s allies in the Bronx Republican Party, which supports him, and occasionally at Johnson himself.

At first, we weren’t sure what those three words, “do not disclose,” meant. Were we even allowed to reveal the subpoena’s existence to a lawyer? We called an assistant district attorney in Johnson’s office, Rosemary Iaconis, and asked what the investigation was about – if this blogger (or anyone else) had been found murdered, for instance, we would have been willing to help. She refused to tell us what alleged crime was being investigated. Instead, she suggested that we quietly cooperate as, she said, a local Republican blog had. Later, she told our lawyer that several blogs had cooperated…Room Eight, however, is a blog – and a local one at that. Our revenues don’t exactly pay for the kind of lawyers the Daily News keeps on retainer, and nobody earns a living from the site.

Make sure to read the entire piece.