ONE of the major issues for newspapers and media companies is what to do about social media and how to harness or control the often ugly, litigious and defamatory things that people post.
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It is a vexed issue for all media publishers that post their breaking news and their main stories – and especially their people stories, of colour and of personality and perseverance and persistence.
Media managers want to put up their best stories and the news of what’s going on in their place, to educate, entertain and inform.
So often it is a minefield of mystery of what comments and conversation you will invoke.
There is a darker side, an ugliness of the ill-informed, the ignorant and the irrational.
On social media, there is often nothing but black and white, and too often the starkness of the attitudes of the unintentional, the uneducated or the arrogant.
Social media is so often seen as an easy way of expressing personal feelings and attitudes and people do use it to do that, often at the peril of the publishers and, so very sadly, at the expense of other people in the news.
A column by Eversol lawyer Natasha Wood in this newspaper recently reminds us – and should remind everyone – that social media and the use of it by its proponents comes with attendant responsibilities.
Natasha flagged the perils of posting, warning of the dangers, risks and consequences of those who might post recklessly or innocently.
There are criminal penalties and civil remedies for defamation and the laws apply to all forms of communication – including social media, like Facebook.
Under criminal law it is an offence to publish, without lawful excuse, a matter defamatory to another person knowing the matter to be false, and with intent to cause serious harm or being reckless about whether that causes harm.
In other words, you need to think before you post.
You’re not immune, it’s not just your opinion that can be aired with no repercussions.
Freedom of speech and expression doesn’t give you the immunity to make unfounded or baseless accusations or allegations.
Basically, you can’t ridicule or damage someone’s reputation or accuse someone of committing a crime.
If you post on social media, it has to be true or based on fact – and you might have to prove that in a court of law if the law catches up with you.
It is a lesson for those who believe they have the right to say what they want and say it online.