Blogger fined for defamation
p2p news / p2pnet: Italian blogger Roberto Mancini is, “suspected of creating a US-hosted blog in 2005 – Il olscevicostanco, which reports on local news in sarcastic and crude terms,” says Reporters Without Borders.
“Using the pseudonym, General Sukhov, he apparently wrote several articles directly attacking local figures.”
Now he’s been found guilty of defamation under criminal law, and ordered to pay 13,500 euros (about $16,900) in fines and damages, says RWB, going on:
“The case was brought by two journalists on regional newspaper Gazzetta Matin, Luca Mercanti and Christina Porta, the press officer for the Val d’Aosta regional chamber of trade and of a local firm, Pier Maria Minuzzo, and a webmaster, Marco Camilli.
“The columns by-lined General Sukhov are certainly written in an extreme style, but the complainants were not able to show they were untrue. It looks like the blogger is being punished for his bad language and not because he posted false information, which is unacceptable.
“He was found responsible for comments posted on his blog by some of his readers, a decision which goes against European jurisprudence.”
p2pnet editor Jon Newton knows how that feels. In a civil case, he’s being sued for alleged defamation by supposed p2p community supporter Sharman Networks, owner of Kazaa, the p2p application credited with largely introducing spyware to the Net, and Kazaa ceo Nikki Hemming.
S&H claim they were libelled by posts which included quotes from anonymous readers’ comments.
In the Italian case, “This verdict could well have a negative effect on the Italian blogosphere, in pushing people running a blog into wrongly censoring messages posted by visitors,” says Reporters Without Borders.
“The organisation added that defamation complaints against journalists and bloggers should go before civil courts, and not as in the case, to a criminal court which could hand down prison sentences.”
The verdict, “was based on Article 595 of the criminal procedure code applying to defamation but making no reference to the 1948 press law, a blogger not being considered a journalist in Italy,” states RWB.
“The verdict however requires that the ‘manager of a blog controls everything that is posted’ and that, like a newspaper editor, ‘he has a duty to remove any messages which are offensive’.”
Newton is determined his case will be tried before a jury.
“Although the Sharman / Hemming suit appears to be a straight defamation claim, what’s really on trial is whether or not an online publication – a blog – can be held responsible for something someone else posts,” he says on the Stop-the-Blogsuit campaign site. “Or put another way, is a blog in reality a content filter acting on behalf of persons unknown?
“And there’s something else: as far as I’m concerned, an anonymous post is the same as a confidential source. I don’t have to like a post, or even agree with it. But I believe that as an honest and responsible human being, I do have to safeguard the poster, if indeed I know who he or she is which in this case, I don’t.
“If Sharman wins it’ll make life a potential hell for bloggers in Canada, at the least. And you can bet the case will be used as a reference for similar actions around the world.”
p2pnet, too, is hosted in the US.
Digg this story.
Also See:
Reporters Without Borders – A blogger unfairly convicted of defamation, June 26, 2006
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