Blogging is a new phenomenon that has swept cyber space for the last 5 years or so. In fact calling it 'new' is not so accurate anymore, but the fact that new Blogs appear on a daily basis, and people seems to love to Blog about everything and anything under the sun, seems to suggest that there are still many people who are just discovering the use of blogging.
We have received enquiries before about Defamation and Blogging and our research of the law has lead us to this summary:-
1. That, one can be sued for defaming another on the Blog. It does not mean if you blog and defame, you get away with it.
2. A blogger must take precaution when writing, not to lower the estimation of other people about that person you are writing about. In another form, one may say you should not attack a person's character to the point that this person's reputation is adversely affected.
3. What about people leaving defamatory comments on the Blog? The position of the law at the moment, is not very clear, though cases have suggested that you can still be sued for defamation for 'publishing' the comment. We would strongly urge bloggers to moderate the Blog.
4. What about having exclusion clauses on the Blog? The Exclusion of liability clause will give notice to other people that your responsibility if limited, but the Courts have concluded in many cases that despite the existense of the Exclusion Clauses, one can still be liable for defamation.
If you are facing a defamation action for this, you may rely of a few Defenses, like fair comment, privilege etc.
To some extent defamation suits against bloggers can curtail free speech, but free speech must always be curtailed by common sense and good will. One should be responsible when blogging. If you dont wish to see some blogger defame you, you should not defame someone else.
For more information and more reading materials on this, you should read this comments on this Blog:-
The law may change every now and then, and our summary above is base on our research till December 2008. Thanks.
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