Maman Poulet

Richardheads

Update: EPT says that the story about being closed down was a hoax. I await comment from the Sunday Times and Dearbhail McDonald. The orginal matter behind the story still occured to my knowledge and the way in which EPT operate behind a cloak of anonymity and commenters who are also anonymous can only lead to trouble in the future given the recent case in the UK. As an administrator of a busy internet forum I have an interest in the matter and have worked at my understanding (and moderation) on the difference between fair comment and defamation. Maybe it will be good for us (blogging/forums/online communities) to have a court case but I won't be putting my hands in my pockets to help in this particular matter.


Whilst the Irish blogosphere (or the interested part of it anyway) does some reflecting on the El Paso Times situation, my reaction to this is 'Was anyone surprised it was them who got themselves into this mess?'

I don't think I will be blogging any differently today than I was yesterday! Whilst I have previously expressed my concerns over my lack of knowledge of libel and the law regarding blogging, I think bloggers can stop doing the 'Oh what will we do now' and 'the end is nigh' and all that stuff.

This is not about a free speech issue. The team behind El Paso Times were dickheads and still are if they think that excuse for an apology was going to get them out of it. I think that most bloggers posses the common sense needed to run their blogs and the rest of the bloggers around them will take them to task or give helpful reminders about what can and can't be published. EPT telling the Sunday Times to piss off a few weeks ago over their interest in a story featured on the blog will not have helped matters either. You reap what you sow.

But I won't be spending my days worrying any more than usual about what I write or the impact of this incident on bloggers. Hopefully the blogger academy will cover the issues needed but I think some of us need to calla spade a spade - this incident did not come about because some blogger did not know what they were doing or could not control the blog or comments section - EPT operates its own agenda entirely, has a large readership and little regard for the law or the society it represents. They had it coming to them.

posted by Maman Poulet @ 4/02/2006 02:34:00 p.m.