Blog no evil;
Libel laws and angry readers make bloggers regret their online rants
From Straits Times - 15/05/2005
Ng Mei Yan
IF YOU think you can rant and rave on your Web log and get away with it, think again. Last March, Mediaah!, a media-criticism blog run by Pradyuman Maheshwari of India, was given a legal notice by the Times of India newspaper to remove 19 libellous posts from the website. The blogger chose to shut down the site instead.
And in Singapore, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) recently took former scholar Chen Jiahao, 23, and Jeremy Chen, 22, an engineering student, to task for allegedly making defamatory remarks about the agency in their online journals. While Jeremy settled the matter amicably with the agency, Jiahao was nearly served with a libel suit before he extended his unreserved apology to the agency.
Hands up, those who still think blogs are the cyber equivalent of your hardcover diary. 'Blogs cannot be considered personal space because everyone can see it. And because of that, the law of defamation still applies,' said Mr Bryan Tan, a lawyer at Tan and Tan Partnership, who specialises in IT law. And you're not off the hook even if you protect your blog with a password and give access only to certain people. 'As past experience with e-mail has shown, it can be copied and forwarded to the whole world in a matter of minutes,' he added.
And the Internet crosses national boundaries. Even if defamatory comments are posted on a website hosted overseas, the content publisher can be sued in a country where the website has been accessed. 'The latest thinking is that if someone in Singapore can read and has read the comments, then the act is committed in Singapore,' said Mr Tan.
So what can you say or not say on the Internet? One of the defences against the charge of defamation is for the comment to be fair. 'The law allows you to have an opinion about something,' said Ms Doris Chia, a partner at Harry Elias Partnership. 'The comment is fair if the facts that support the comment are true and that it was made without malice,' she added.
Said Mr Tan: 'If you think a play is not entertaining and you state the reasons why, then that's fair. But if you say the play is the worst in the world and you can't back that up, then you're in trouble.'
When found guilty of defamation, the compensation amount can range from hundreds of dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on how many people had read the defamatory material, the nature of the content, the level of aggravation and the social standing of the victim, said Mr Wilson Wong, a lawyer at Drew and Napier.
And a person does not have to be of a minimum age to be charged. Even if the law doesn't get to the bloggers, other Netizens will. There have been cases of people taking their own 'action' against abusive bloggers. 'Brose' incurred the wrath of Netizens after he put up a long entry calling the girls in his university 'boring' and 'ugly'. The multitude of hate comments from other bloggers made him shut down his blog for more than a week.
He wrote: 'The reason why I decided to terminate this blog is because the original reason for its creation and existence is now gone. 'It was supposed to be fun for me to write and de-stress, to express my views on the Internet where free speech is being practised. Now this is no longer fun nor is it private.'
But young bloggers interviewed by The Sunday Times said they were not worried about getting into any trouble. 'I don't attack or put people down on my blog, so I am not bothered,' said Mr Ho Yong Min, 21, who is waiting to enter university. He posts reflective and philosophical entries rather than narrative ones.
Prominent blogger Wendy Cheng, 21, also known as 'Xia- xue', said: 'I know the people whom I criticise are not going to come after me and sue me. I don't write about companies and they are the ones that will sue.' One of the few who is more conscious about what she writes is 18-year-old Shandy Yeo, a student at a private school who blogs about her daily life.
She told The Sunday Times that she is not taking any chances with the law. 'I think I will be more careful about what I write, and won't venture into topics like politics, race and religion.' As veteran blogger Lee Kin Mun, 35, advised: 'I think the most important guideline is if you are prepared to put a strong statement out there, be prepared to receive a strong statement back and be prepared to defend it when people criticise, or be able to take the criticism with a thick skin.'
Said lawyer Tan: 'Do be sensitive about what you write. Even if it is not defamatory, would the person being targeted benefit from your views? 'Criticism is not wrong if it is constructive. I would advise bloggers to think about what they are putting out there and rectify it before it hurts anyone.'
But what if you need to rant? Said Mr Lee: 'The most secure blog you have is the Microsoft Word in your C drive.'
Copyright 2005 Singapore Press Holdings Limited
Date: 15/05/2005
Publication: Straits Times
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