SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - THE DANGER OF BEING A 'PUBLISHER' WHEN YOU DON'T KNOW YOU ARE ONE

By Graham Potter | Sunday, May 15, 2016

Graham Potter writes a weekly column for the Sunshine Coast daily. Due to demand from those having trouble accessing the paper these columns are now also published on HRO courtesy of the Sunshine Coast daily.

Last Tuesday the news broke that Terry Bailey, the Chief Steward in Victoria, was taking legal action against the creator of the ‘Allow Danny Nikolic to ride’ facebook page, claiming he had been defamed in a series of posts on the page.

Bailey’s action should be followed closely by anybody with even a passing interest in posting content on social media.

While, in essence everyone is entitled to freedom of speech, the common law of defamation still remains very much in play and therin lies the lesson that the Bailey case might yet teach those who thought otherwise, irrespective of the case’s ultimate outcome.

For now, let’s rather discuss the subject in broader terms ... and let’s get right to the legal implications of what is involved.

Defamation is defined as the action of damaging the good reputation of someone ... or, if you want the expanded definition from the legal dictionary, defamation is ‘any intentional false communication, either written or spoken, that harms a person's reputation; decreases the respect, regard, or confidence in which a person is held or induces disparaging, hostile, or disagreeable opinions or feelings against a person.’

Completed court cases have already established that defamation is actionable regardless of how or where it occurs ... including on the internet ... making social media no different, in terms of liability, to other forms of publishing.

Interestingly enough, Bailey’s writ is against the ‘page’s creator, administrator and principal publisher.’

‘Publisher’ ... and here we all were thinking we had merely opened up a facebook account!

Of course not everybody who might transgress the law of defamation sets out with any specific intent.

Because facebook is a twenty-four / seven operation though, with unrestricted access, it means people can be on there, in the negative sense, when they are inebriated, when they are angry, when they are tired etc.

There is no filter to control what is said and put out to the world at the push of a button.

As Bailey’s action shows, if there is a party who is seriously enough aggrieved, those who are alleged to have overstepped the mark can be called to account.

Most people use social media for their own pleasure and do the right thing.

The warning is there for those who don’t that it could prove to be a costly exercise.

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There was some sniping at the quality of the Queensland Winter Racing Carnival emanating out of Melbourne earlier in the week suggesting it was a carnival for ‘second tier, uncompetitive Sydney carnival horses.’

The jibe understandably prompted a vocal response from various Queensland racing identities but I wonder if their comeback was necessary.

Given the fact that the history of the Winter Carnival is punctuated with a long list of top quality winners I think the Winter Carnival speaks for itself in terms of the solid place it has cemented in the grand scheme of things.

It is not necessary to defend it.

Nobody claims it is the best, biggest, brightest carnival of the racing season, but it is certainly a carnival of note and, with all due respect to those who took a passionate stand against its misrepresentation, I think time could be better spent than defending it against those who project the view that it is less than it is.