Australian Bloggers Muzzled...
Found This in Todays Sydney Morning Herald Online edition.....
Edmund TadrosDecember 7, 2005 04:00 PM
Australian blogs will never be as hard-hitting as their overseas counterparts because of our ridiculous laws.
Many local bloggers are unaware that they may be liable for everything they write on their sites, not to mention all of the colourful comments made by contributors.
Our new sedition laws will make this worse.
Blogs fall under the same defamation and other laws that regulate all media organisations in the country.
While US bloggers are protected by a freedom of speech clause in the US Bill of Rights, new sedition laws passed by Australian authorities may make life even tougher for bloggers.
Local bloggers, even without the new laws, must be very careful about what they write."Bloggers may be liable for what's on their website as the publisher of the information," says Stephen James, a specialist in Technology Law and partner at TressCox. "I think they need to be more cautious. There is no exception in the law for internet conversations."
There have been only a few cases involving internet bloggers, but James expects more cases involving breaches of other laws.His golden rule for bloggers is: "Don't post any comment about any person that you wouldn't be happy to see about yourself.""Remember all laws, including defamation, legal obligations to keep some information confidential, providing negligent advice and even the new sedition laws may apply to bloggers," says James.
Australian bloggers have mixed views about legal issues."My site is a group blog, maintained by my partner and I," says Caz, from spinstartshere.com."We're both journalists and have a fairly good working knowledge of defamation, contempt, etc so we basically refer to our own judgement when writing."This means she has to moderate comments on her site."For example, you wouldn't believe how many times we've had people post the same unsubstantiated story about an Australian singer's cocaine habit that I'd love to keep published, but can't for legal reasons," she says.
Blogger and lawyer Quantum Meruit, says most bloggers are not aware of media law."A lot of people still don't know what blogging is, so you feel like it is almost a secret world which doesn't cross over with your real life," she says. "But, of course, there is always the potential for that real life crossover to happen."
Some bloggers say they don't care.Sam Ward from A Yobbo's View says he doesn't consider legal issues when he blogs.The legal threats Ward has received "usually come from cretins who can't even spell lawyer".He would only remove content if he felt he was in the wrong, he says."If it was just some self-important loser trying to bully me around, I'd have my day in court."
Edmund TadrosDecember 7, 2005 04:00 PM
Australian blogs will never be as hard-hitting as their overseas counterparts because of our ridiculous laws.
Many local bloggers are unaware that they may be liable for everything they write on their sites, not to mention all of the colourful comments made by contributors.
Our new sedition laws will make this worse.
Blogs fall under the same defamation and other laws that regulate all media organisations in the country.
While US bloggers are protected by a freedom of speech clause in the US Bill of Rights, new sedition laws passed by Australian authorities may make life even tougher for bloggers.
Local bloggers, even without the new laws, must be very careful about what they write."Bloggers may be liable for what's on their website as the publisher of the information," says Stephen James, a specialist in Technology Law and partner at TressCox. "I think they need to be more cautious. There is no exception in the law for internet conversations."
There have been only a few cases involving internet bloggers, but James expects more cases involving breaches of other laws.His golden rule for bloggers is: "Don't post any comment about any person that you wouldn't be happy to see about yourself.""Remember all laws, including defamation, legal obligations to keep some information confidential, providing negligent advice and even the new sedition laws may apply to bloggers," says James.
Australian bloggers have mixed views about legal issues."My site is a group blog, maintained by my partner and I," says Caz, from spinstartshere.com."We're both journalists and have a fairly good working knowledge of defamation, contempt, etc so we basically refer to our own judgement when writing."This means she has to moderate comments on her site."For example, you wouldn't believe how many times we've had people post the same unsubstantiated story about an Australian singer's cocaine habit that I'd love to keep published, but can't for legal reasons," she says.
Blogger and lawyer Quantum Meruit, says most bloggers are not aware of media law."A lot of people still don't know what blogging is, so you feel like it is almost a secret world which doesn't cross over with your real life," she says. "But, of course, there is always the potential for that real life crossover to happen."
Some bloggers say they don't care.Sam Ward from A Yobbo's View says he doesn't consider legal issues when he blogs.The legal threats Ward has received "usually come from cretins who can't even spell lawyer".He would only remove content if he felt he was in the wrong, he says."If it was just some self-important loser trying to bully me around, I'd have my day in court."
posted by Snickers at 12:02 AM
1 Comments:
Wow! Thanks for posting that up, I had no idea!
Hope you're feeling better Nick.
D xox
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