Court finds blogging just the same as old media

Cameron Slater has been found guilty of eight breaches of suppression orders and one of identifying a victim on his blog Whale Oil. Slater has portrayed himself as a defender of free speech but the judge wasn't buying it, despite his claim that he posted the information in such a way that it was not immediately readable and therefore wasn't in English, Māori or sign-language (NZ official languages). Breaking the law is breaking the law, even on the net, in this country.

Suppression orders and the net

Cameron Slater is now in court here in Auckland charged with breaching court suppression orders. As right-wing blogger Whale Oil, he has argued that some suppression orders are against the public's right to know and/or free speech.

This brings up some tricky issues. Does an accused have a right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty? Does someone in the media have the right to decide unilaterally that a law is wrong? Should suppression orders that apply to trad media apply to new media? Has the horse already bolted?

There is an undeniable charm about this current period we are all living through in the infancy of the internet (I'm taking a long-term view here). Anarchy appeals and virtual anarchy appeals even more as theoretically no-one gets hurt, not like the bad old days of anarchy when people got killed in real life.

But I wouldn't like to be in the shoes of someone remotely famous falsely accused of a sex crime in New Zealand right now. Chances are I'd be outed by the Cameron Slaters of this world and my reputation slashed before I even got near the chance to defend myself.

Which is not an argument for censorship or other forms of control of the net. I suspect that our current laws can be seen to be working as Slater is now in court. The judge has described Whale Oil's blogs as "like a shotgun blast, it hits the person and then other people he doesn't want to hit". Slater is arguing semantics, saying he published pictures (clues to the accused's identity) but he's not telling people how to interpret them and they're really just random online doodles. I wouldn't put money on the judge seeing it his way.

In the meantime, just for entertainment, Slater is going up against Andrew Williams in a North Shore ward in the upcoming Auckland elections. His first pledge: I will not piss on any trees.

Says it all really - about both him and Andrew Williams.

The Dangers of Blogging (especially for men)

On the topic of blogging, this TED talk given by Yassi Vardi, an ‘investor and prankster’, examines the dangers of blogging, especially for men, amusingly labelling it 'local warming'.

TED talks are great. Like the one mentioned above, most of them are interesting and entertaining, many are also thought provoking, and quite often, as well as being informative, they are funny. As you can, or will see if you watch Vardi’s talk, even the ones that seem to be just for amusement can raise some very interesting questions. I have no doubt that at least a couple of males will begin to worry about resting their laptops on their laps after having watched this. I myself am now thinking about my posture.

What's interesting in regard to the gender talks we've been having lately is in comparison to Yossi Vardi, Mena Trott, ‘the founding mother of the blog revolution’ (who also gives a talk on blogging) discusses her emotions about blogging, while Vardi discusses (and jokes about) the actual act of blogging. Trott's blog itself is about her personal life, and is implied to be written in a confessional, or diary form, which the first lecture suggested was common of female authors.

In relation to the readership of blogs, Trott also mentions how startled she was when she realised how many people- strangers- were actually reading her blog. She goes on to discuss blogs that she follows, and how emotionally connected she becomes to the authors of those blogs, and her concern and curiosity about their stories. Through her realisation of her readership, and her following of other blogs, Trott illustrates the potential of blogs to connect people from all around the globe.

As mentioned in lecture one, blogs are a medium that people often seek out. I wonder then, how many readers will our collective blog attract outside of our class, and how many of us will actually go over to our sister blog and read the stage 2 students' entries?