Social Media – ignorance of the law is no defence
As someone who began his journalistic career using typewriters alongside colleagues who smoked at their desks, I have seen the media undergo some fundamental changes.
Developments include the demise of hot metal printing, the rise of desktop publishing and the expansion of specialist consumer and trade magazines to name but a few. But the most significant change has undoubtedly been the universalisation of the media through the internet.
Thanks to social media, everyone can express their thoughts to the world.
Many welcome the availability of information and freedom of expression brought about by the internet – myself included. But as someone who was schooled in the laws of defamation and the rules of court reporting it is quite astonishing to witness what are daily violations of these once sacred rules.
There was a time when trained journalists were the gatekeepers of the media. Many a time I saw news editors berate reporters for breaching the rules of court reporting or writing something that was clearly libellous. But there are few such safeguards in the era of social media.
In many instances, it is a case of authors of tweets or blogs etc who have no idea what laws they are breaking. But ignorance of the law is no defence.
The Lord McAlpine case was perhaps the most high profile example of members of the public – and an MP who should have known better – expressing their thoughts on social media and seriously breaking the law. A more recent case occurred this week with the Daily Mirror reporting that Peaches Geldof faces a police probe for naming two mums purported to be the ones who allowed their children to be abused by Lost Prophets singer Ian Watkins. Victims of sexual abuse, especially children, cannot be named by law to protect their identities.
While some cases are prosecuted I can only imagine that many other breaches of the law are not because of a lack of resources. Having worked with police on a local level and knowing how stretched they are, I was quite surprised when two officers had to be sent to an errant 17-year-old’s home to caution him about his offensive tweets regarding champion diver Tom Daley and his father.
The scope for breaches of media law on the Internet is clearly boundless – while enforcement of the rules will always be limited by the resources available to do so. But any company seeking to expand its social media activity should certainly only do so with at least some appreciation of the legal issues involved.