When In Doubt Leave It Out

By Ben Meisner

Every so often it becomes necessary to refresh the minds of those old time commentators and those new ones as to what you can say and what you cannot without leaving yourself open to libel or slander.

Recent court findings have clearly indicated that you cannot hide behind a fictitious name. The court can order that the person using that computer on a regular basis be identified to the court for the purpose of that trial.  In other words you may have anonymity in a regular post but not so if you libel someone.

The point is this, you cannot accuse someone of wrong doing unless you can prove it, rumour is just that. The laws are there to protect you as well as the person you may be writing about. Free speech is just that, it does not grant you the opportunity to libel or slander anyone you want, just as someone else cannot call you for example a wife beater or a child molester, or for that matter a person who likes to sleep around without proof and escape the libel and slander laws of Canada, and so it should be that way.

Lately many people have been inching ever closer to that line and we have had to pull some comments.

We have a saying in the news business, 'When it doubt, leave it out'. If you are prepared to go to court and that can be an expensive proposition and prove beyond any reasonable doubt that what you said was true, or you received it from sources that knew it to be true, you could find yourself faced with a very large legal settlement because you did not show reason.

May I repeat, free speech does not entitle you to make unsupported statements about your fellow man regardless of who they are, just as the Prime Minister for example cannot make unsupported statements about you.

Finally, may I remind you again, thinking that you may be able to hide behind a fictitious name in a legal action is being shown in the courts to not be true. Save yourself some possible grief and Opinion 250 as well , error on the side of caution.

Thank you

Ben Meisner  

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