[LINK] itNews: Tas Police fed up with Social Media

[Jim Birch]

This is an example of the popular intuition that the Internet is somehow
official or something so higher standards apply and the government is
responsible, when in fact the opposite - it's down to you baby - more often
applies.

Jim



On 16 July 2012 10:41, Roger Clarke <Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au> wrote:

> >At 08:46 AM 16/07/2012, Roger Clarke wrote:
> >>"Police should be contacted only where the content relates directly
> >>to a crime," he said.
>
> At 9:55 +1000 16/7/12, Jan Whitaker wrote:
> >Question: Is defamation a crime or a civil offence?
>
> I was about to quip "Only in Singapore, and even then only if the
> alleged defamee is someone in the ruling clique".  (Okay, 'ruling
> clique' is technically inaccurate, but you know what I mean).
>
> And of course there's Thailand as well, although that's really lese
> majeste, which applies in (some?) other jurisdictions as well:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lese-majesty
>
> Lese majeste existed in Australia until *at least* 1940:
> http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/46721967
>
> And yes, there is such a thing as criminal defamation in Oz, e.g.
> http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/ca190082/s529.html
>
> http://www.legalaid.wa.gov.au/InformationAboutTheLaw/treatment/Pages/Thingspeoplesay.aspx
>
> I wonder if there are many prosecutions.
>
> I doubt it.  But Don Wetherburn's NSW Crime Stats would tell us about
> that jursidiction at least.
>
> Here's a recent press report from SA:
>
> http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/teen-guilty-of-facebook-slur/story-e6frea83-1225801651074
>
>
>
> >And what about cyberbullying? Will the police act then? What about
> >racial vilification? The broad brush about what happens offline
> >versus online isn't good enough a distinction.
>
> Quite right.
>
> But they're trying to filter out the 'this person was rude about me!'
> complaints.
>
> ______________________
>
> >As far as I can tell, the individual can still sue someone for
> >defamation. Let's clog the courts then! ;-)
> >But there are cases of criminal defamation, but according to the link
> >below, it appears to come after a finding of a judge that the case
> >involved malice, rather than police doing anything in advance of the
> trial.
> >http://www.thenewsmanual.net/Resources/medialaw_in_australia_02.html
>
> --
> Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/
>
> Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
>