What’s the matter Rupert, is your business feeling threatened by anonymous bloggers?
It seems the rise in popularity of the humble blog is causing some issues for the print media.
This month a UK High Court Judge refused to preserve the identity of an anonymous blogger, maintaining it was in the public interest for
The London Times newspaper to reveal his identity. Mr Justice Eady said blogging was a “public rather than a private activity” and bloggers would not automatically be guaranteed anonymity just for writing under a pseudonym.
Richard Horton, a Detective in the Lancashire Constabulary, started his anonymous blog,
NightJack, in February 2008. He discussed head-on accounts of investigating serious crime and how he believed policing should work within society. His readership grew to 1500 a day and he was offered a book deal which he declined. He ceased posting in January 2009 but his blog remained on the internet.
Then, unexpectedly, in February 2009, his blog was long listed for the presitigious
Orwell Prize for political writing. In March 2009,
NightJack made it on to the shortlist. To his shock, he ended up winning. The morning after his win (he didn’t turn up to accept the award), his blog was mentioned in
The Guardian and in
The Sun newspapers. As a result, his blog readership went up to 60,000 a day. He donated his award prize winnings to a police charity. His e-mail inbox had offers from newspapers, literary agents, publishers and people who wanted to discuss film rights and TV adaptations. He declined.
A short time later, he and his employer got phone calls from a
Times reporter asking if he was the author of
NightJack. He went to court to stop the newspaper from publishing his name and personal details about his home and family. He lost. His details were published.
Not surprisingly, there has been an angry backlash from the blogosphere about this case. Seven other anonymous police blogs have already been deleted because they fear being 'outed' as well.
The Times also 'outed' another blogger and revealed her true identity. In the public interest, of course. Zoe had just turned her personal blog into a book called
Girl with a One Track Mind. As a result, she lost her job and suffered a great deal.
And yet, if you read a recent article written by the journalist, Anna Mikhailova, who outed Zoe, you would imagine that bloggers were the ones causing print journalists serious mischief.
"Unmasking an anonymous blogger can ruin your reputation and threaten your career"
, she says in
this recent article.
The traditional media operates through fear and sensationalism and has the backing of a large legal team. As Anna says in her article, “every national newspaper has a legal team to check stories for defamatory content and to see if they serve the public interest. Few blogs can say the same. If bloggers were made aware that their anonymity was not always absolutely guaranteed, then arguably they would be just a tiny bit more careful. So perhaps the occasional outing is just the level of control that the blogging community needs. “
Right, so we bloggers need to be kept in line do we?
As an individual who once had the misfortune of being contacted by a reporter and appearing in a British newspaper article myself (one which was short on facts and big on sensationalism), Anna Mikhailova is talking out of her a**. Unlike the mighty media corporations, the average person does not have the backing of large legal team to encourage Fleet Street to be a great deal more careful with the facts. If we had the same muscle, Rupert and his peers wouldn't be billionaires.
I love that millions of individuals from all walks of life are sitting at their keyboards expressing their opinions and flying beneath the traditional media radar. On Blogger alone, 270,000 words are written every minute of every day. And information can be spread faster than any media outlet ever could. Take, for example, those brave souls twittering and blogging in Iran.
However, anonymous bloggers who have something interesting to say and whose blogs generate a large readership, should be aware. Big Brother might eventually want its piece of you and you may find yourself punching above your weight. Unless you have a large legal team behind you. And a few passports in strange names.
Do you think the print media has any right to ‘out’ anonymous bloggers? What obligations do we (as bloggers) have when we choose to publish our views in the public domain?
Given I bet he does Google searches on himself, the views expressed in this post are those of an anonymous blogger with only a few readers, one lawyer in the family and only one passport, dammit!! Rupert , I love your mother does that count? I know you are scared of her. She told that to one of your reporters, so it must be right.
.jpg)
