The Advocate’s editorial today is dedicated to blogging and clearly mentions Barbados Free Press and Barbados Underground.
‘polibogs (political blogs)’
No! I don’t think so, both frequently cover non-political topics.
Observation by our frequent writer Adrian Loverige
MORE than one commentator in recent times has commented on the role played by the popular local blogs in the recent elections. The blog, or web log, as it is more formally known, takes a variety of forms, but essentially describes an online journal. They can be the personal musings of one author or, like the local “poliblogs” (political blogs) Barbados Free Press and Barbados Underground, can be written by many authors, or contributors, on a common set of topics. Online media such as the BBC, the Trinidad Express and the Times, to name a few, provide opportunities on bIogs, for readers to discuss topics which they have covered. It should be also noted that both of the major parties in Barbados employ blogs as a means of communicating with its supporters and others.
Soapbox
The blog is not immediately to be compared to a newspaper, so far as the law is concerned. It allows for a greater degree of anonymity, thus guaranteeing a degree of freedom of expression quite unlike that historically provided to the press. It is not that the blog is not subject to the laws of defamation, for example, but the ability to identify the writer is fraught with procedural difficulty, and the liability of the host provider for the statements of a contributor is not absolute.
There is no doubt however that the blog is here to stay. It has democratised free speech in a way that was not possible a few years ago, when “only a small number of powerful speakers (and writers) could dominate the marketplace of ideas”. Now, as the court put it in a recent Delaware case, the Internet blog allows anyone to “become a town crier with a voice that resonates more than it could from any soapbox”.
More than that, in Barbados the political blogs, without judicial or legislative intervention, have served to revolutionise the traditional balance between the individual interest in reputation and the right to freedom of expression, and have done so in a way that goes beyond even the much acclaimed US defamation law. At present, officialdom seems prepared to ignore this, but it is at least incongruous that one law should apply to online communication while a different, and more restrictive, law applies to the printed media. And by all indications, the readership of these blogs is in excess of that of the two local daily newspapers.
Freedom and development
We make it clear that we are by no means proposing that the blogs be restricted in their freedom of expression, but rather that the authorities consider carefully whether such freedom is in keeping with the development path of this island and, if so, whether it should not also be extended to other media.
In the Delaware case to which we referred above, the court treated the blog as a “vehicle for the expression of opinions” and held that a reasonable person reading blog statements would not necessarily “assume that such statements are factually based and researched”, as opposed to, say, those in the Wall Street journal In consequence, these were to be regarded as either “subjective speculation” or “mere hyperbole” and thus not actionable.
With all due respect to that court, we differ from this view. We consider rather that the blog is merely the online equivalent of a newspaper, and that they should both be subject to the same laws in respect of freedom of expression; no more, no less.
Read an excellent article on this subject posted over on a sister blog: Living in Barbados: Blogging: The local press takes note
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