Bloggers Are Not Immune

Bloggers don’t enjoy more rights

BY MANJIT KAUR

KUALA LUMPUR: Bloggers are as liable for defamation as publishers in any other medium, but the difficulty arises when there are anonymous postings on blogs.

According to University of Ulster (UK) senior lecturer in Law Dr Venkat Iyer, it is the anonymity that creates a legal “grey area”.

Dr Iyer said it was wrong to assume that bloggers enjoyed greater privileges.

“There have been cases in the West where legal action had been taken against websites for defamatory remarks and some website owners were also taken to court when an anonymous posting was made,” he said.

He was speaking to reporters after delivering a talk on “Defamation in Cyberspace” by the Kuala Lumpur Bar here yesterday as part of its ongoing legal education programme.

On the liability of companies whose employees blog, Dr Iyer said it depended on the company's policies on e-mail and IT facilities.

He said that if the employees used the company’s website or logo to blog, and if the company knew about it, then very likely the employee or employees would be served with a warning not to use the company’s assets.

“With this the liability reduces, but if the employee just uses the facilities of the company and blogs on his own site, then again if the company comes to know about it, very likely he would be served with a warning for using its facilities, premises and company time,” he said.

“And under those circumstances, if ever legal action is taken, then the company can defend itself by saying it had taken all the reasonable steps to ensure that the employee was prevented from doing what he did.”

He said the Internet was a unique medium, as it had a limitless potential audience, was easy to access, and had the ability to create communities regardless of geographical constraints.

Dr Iyer said that therefore the potential difficulties, among others that could arise, were the effects of republication of libellous matter, anonymity of authors, implications of hyperlinking, liability of intermediaries and effects of multiple format publication.

He said the cyber-defamation possibilities included e-mail messages, where risks are inherent when the recipient forwards such messages.

Dr Iyer said that when there are mailing lists the situation can be riskier as any member of a mailing list may reply with a defamatory statement that he intended only for the person who posted a particular message but inadvertently relayed it to everyone else.

Indeed we don't. Let me quote my mum:

"What you want to say is your right. The moment you've said it, it becomes other's right." -My Mum, Halijah Binti Nasir-

It's true. Thus the phrase, "watch what you were saying," comes into play. Say it in a manner less harmful. Can't say that I do it all the time, but I try as hard as I can to sprinkle humor on what I said. To dull the edge.

And there are some taboos as well. Take the picture posted by Tian Chua. That's going too far, even as a joke. He could at least put a disclaimer: "This is just the author's illustration of how the picture might look like". Something like that. Thus removing him from the blame of insulting, as he was just assuming that the picture might look like the picture he doctored.

However, the Government itself has to be neutral so that bloggers will not be victimized. There are some instances where bloggers were subjected to lawsuit for telling the truth. This can be very damaging not only to the blogsphere, but also for the country, as the people calling for lawsuit most of the time are corrupt people. People who make a living out of the sweat, blood and tear of their fellow countrymen. If the Government aims to have patriotic people, then the bloggers who dared to uncover corrupt personnel are the people the Government would like to have more of.