The tweet that launched a $50k lawsuitHow to get sued in 140 characters or fewer: a woman complained to her 20 followers on Twitter about her real estate agents. Now they’re hitting her up for $50,000 for defamation.
Defamation
Journalists beware: rumours in cyberspace may ruin credibility
As Mark Twain said, writing long before the arrival of the internet, a lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth has its trousers on.
Faris: why I don’t want a Crikey blog
I am as thick-skinned as the next commentator, probably more so, but there is no point in having dialogue with people who have a visceral hatred for you personally, writes Peter Faris.
A victory for journalism, but with a pinch of salt
Macquarie Bank’s protracted defamation case against the The Australian over a 2005 article about the bank’s involvement with the Beaconsfield Mine has been dismissed with costs, writes Chris Paver.
A Whirlpool of “injurious falsehood”
There is a legal case unfolding in Queensland, against Simon Wright, the host of a popular IT blogsite called Whirlpool, that every blogger should keep a watching brief over as it could set an unpleasant precedent for freedom of speech.
New uniform defamation code calms litigants
Amazing but true. The Age newspaper has received just one writ for defamation in the last 18 months. How could this be? In the same period the paper has seen a resurgence in investigative reporting and some gutsy sleuthing on gangland killings and religious cults.
Larvartus Prodeo / Thursday, 20 August 2009
A blogger posts inflammatory comments online about a Vogue model. A court then insists the blogger be identified, so the model can sue for defamation. What if that happened in Australia? Would it change what people wrote online?