Note to Business Week: Bloggers Aren’t Immune from Libel Law (from: Dan Gillmor)
http://dangillmor.typepad.com/dan_gillmor_on_grassroots/2005/03/note_to_busines.html
In an otherwise constructive look at Apple’s attack on freedom of the press, Business Week Online says:
However, blogs have also fast gained a reputation for inaccuracy that threatens to erode their writers’ claim to the title of journalist. Just as these sites have been touted as the new pillars of American democracy for their ability to ensure that any literate person can publish, they have also proven to be swirling rumor mills. In traditional media, the same legal rights that allow a journalist to protect sources also hold such writers accountable to report the truth. If journalists stray from what’s true, they can be charged with libel.Well, sure, they can be sued for libel. But this piece suggests that pro journalists have more incentive than bloggers to tell the truth, and thus sets up the reader to think that the professionals therefore deserve more protection.
False. In fact, bloggers are hardly immune from libel laws. They, too, can be sued, as Yale law professor Jack Balkin noted a long time ago. (See also this story in Online Journalism Review.)
Professionals get sued more often, no doubt, but that’s almost certainly because they work for organizations with deep pockets — and because the damage they can cause when they get things wrong is greater.
I hope Business Week will clarify its story.