[LINK] blogger, ABC Drum in defamation suit

Jan Whitaker jwhit at janwhitaker.com
Mon Jan 30 09:41:10 AEDT 2012



Legal threat to bloggers

Lawrence Money
January 30, 2012 - 3:00AM
    * 
<http://www.theage.com.au/national/melbourne-life/payback-for-the-internets-creepy-cowboys-20120129-1qnzb.html?rand=1327865920802>Payback 
for the interent's creepy cowboys [<-- another article from a 
defamation lawyer's view]

IN A move that tightens the screws further on internet defamation, 
legal action has been taken against the ABC for follow-up comment on 
the Marieke Hardy case.

Hardy last month apologised and 
<http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/hardy-pays-13000-to-settle-defamation-case-20111226-1paic.html?rand=1327865874153>agreed 
to pay a reported $13,000 to online music critic Joshua Meggitt for 
attacking him online, wrongly believing he was responsible for 
writing a slanderous blog.

Melbourne defamation lawyer Stuart Gibson, who represented Meggitt in 
the case, said action had now begun against the ABC's online and TV 
segment The Drum for allegedly repeating the defamation of Meggitt.

''We are seeking damages,'' said Mr Gibson, who claims a Drum blogger 
had referred to Meggitt as the ''internet stalker''.

Mr Gibson says that such cases as Hardy's - and a recent decision in 
Queensland forcing Google to release the identity of a blogger to a 
man he had abused online - are signs that the internet is no longer 
an area that can circumvent the laws of defamation.

This story was found at: 
http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/legal-threat-to-bloggers-20120129-1qo1w.html 




Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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