By Greg Thomson, Community Newspaper Group editor-in-chief
THE internet in Australia is fast becoming a defamation free-for-all, where all manner of absurd claims and untruths can be made without repercussion.
Take the few examples that have sprung up on social networking site Facebook here in Perth and on the east coast in recent days.
In Perth, a young man’s simple plan to raise awareness of anti-social behaviour at Midland was hijacked on Facebook by individuals posting racist pictures and offensive comments about Aborigines in the area.
Not surprisingly, most of the comments and attributions – cheap shots really – were made anonymously or through a series of bogus or fake Facebook accounts or identities.
In Queensland, a group dedicated to the memory of murdered eight-year-old Bundaberg girl Trinity Bates had their Facebook site vandalised by morons posting pornography and sexually explicit content on their memorial site.
Facebook administrators were slow in shutting down the offensive content, suggesting to me that they didn’t care.
Adding more fuel to the fire, a Perth company won a public apology and was awarded $30,000 in damages in the WA Supreme Court last week after an anonymous blogger was found guilty of tarnishing the firm’s reputation.
The company’s win is historic – it ought to serve as a reminder that individuals can be held accountable for unfair or untrue defamatory imputations, even when made anonymously.
The controversy of the past week now has the Federal Government seriously contemplating the merits of an Internet Ombudsman to presumably adjudicate on complaints, and police those who publish online.
Web publishers are expected to act responsibly, but it is clear many do not. Not only do they need to act within the law, but they also ought to demonstrate reasonable taste and common sense too – qualities often lacking in cyberspace.