A timely legal warning to bloggers this morning about breaking legal boundaries on blogs, specifically about naming those like Graham Capill who have been granted legal protection.
I haven't seen the "storm of opinion on the internet" that the Herald says they've seen about this, but their quoted expert "Professor Burrows said he has seen plenty of comments on blogs which breach the law, and added that authors could face legal action if they are traced."
DPF is quoted as saying bloggers "breaking defamation and name suppression laws are the exception rather than the rule," and I'm inclined to agree that such cases are exceptional. Which means perhaps that we NZ bloggers (and those who post comments on our blogs) just aren't doing our job properly.
1 comment:
We've got an interesting loop effect going where the media are reading blogs to guage public opinion and then being critical because we use their info as the basis for our opinions!
Yes, I guess bloggers could be "breaking defamation and name suppression laws" but no more than in the old days when people would gossip about the identity - often getting it wrong. We'll be no different.
The big question is if bloggers are given more credibility than any other gossip in the country today? I suspect most people know that our opinions are just that!
And should Graham be able to sue me for the comments I make here, on my site, or anywhere else? No. I should be able to say what I think based on information in the public domain.
If I come up with anything new, then perhaps but I haven't read anything that couldn't be directly traced back to media reports.
Sarah
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