The group says that hyperlinking is a defining characteristic of online journalism and that rapid access to layers of supplementary information allows journalists to add depth and context to their stories.
The legal threat to hyperlinking emerged when a federal judge in the US agreed that DVDs must be protected from decryption and copying. In doing so, he said that DVD-descrambling programmes should be eradicated and they should not be distributed.
The case was prompted by a high-profile campaign by leading Hollywood studios to prevent illegal online content distribution.
However, the ruling also prevented links to sites carrying descrambling programmes and there is widespread concern that this could affect news organisations, their coverage of the lawsuit and, more seriously, their use of hyperlinks as an editorial tool.
The challenge to this ruling was signed by eight media organisations and filed as a friend of the court brief with the US court of appeals for the Second Circuit.
The organisations argue that the internet has become a core news medium and that hyperlinks are fundamentally the engine of the web.
"Links enable the online journalist to fully include each of the elements of reporting - strong storytelling devices, presentation of a variety of viewpoints, and attribution of primary and secondary sources - in a story," the brief states.
"According to the Society of Professional Journalists, one of the ultimate goals of journalism is to provide readers with comprehensive accounts of the news, and one of the journalist’s ethical mandates, in order to 'Seek Truth and Report It', is to identify sources, and provide the public with as much source information as possible."
As well as the ONA, the alliance of eight organisations includes: the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press; the Newspaper Association of America; and, the Pew Center on the States.
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