Defamation on the internet - Bloggers, watch your keys!!
A judge has ordered an internet blogger to pay £10,000 in compensation to Michael Keith-Smith, a prominent member of the UK Independence Party, for waging an abusive campaign against him on an internet bulletin board.
Tracy Williams, from Oldham, Lancashire (North-West England), used a pseudonym to post claims that the 53-year-old chartered surveyor was a "nonce", a sexual offender, a racist bigot and a Nazi. In June 2004, Mr Smith, obtained a court order requiring the site operator to disclose Ms Williams’s identity. This enabled him to bring High Court proceedings against Williams who he claimed had 'attacked' him in a Yahoo! discussion board where the rights and wrongs of the war in Iraq were being discussed.
Ms Williams, who was not in court and did not file a defence to the action, did not seek to justify her statements. Assessing damages, Judge Alistair Macduff noted that Mr Smith had a reputation of some integrity. He said that although the libels were available to the whole world through the internet, it was likely that few people had read them and many of those who did would have dismissed them as being "the rantings of a person who was not to be believed". Nonetheless, he awarded Mr Smith £5,000 general damages plus £5,000 aggravated damages to reflect the way Ms Williams had behaved: she had been invited to apologise but in Judge Macduff's words "not only neglected to do so, but has made it clear that her attitude towards an apology is one of contempt"
He granted an injunction preventing the publication of the same or similar libels and ordered Ms Williams to pay the costs of the action, which Mr Smith put at £7,200.
This seems to be the first time that the High Court has awarded damages for defamatory comments posted on an internet bulletin board, although a retired teacher won £1,250 in damages at Lincoln County Court in May 2002 for comments posted about him on the website Friends Reunited by a former pupil.
It's a ruling that will be of interest to all bloggers who should be extra cautious of what they write and who they write about. Bloggers have been warned, watch your keys!!