Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing to make a complaint about the blogger 'Dr Crippen'. His Blog is defamatory and most of the vitriolic content of his blog is grossly inaccurate. He purports to be a doctor, and his blog is damaging to midwives personally and the profession as a whole. I request that his name is published so that he can be placed in a position to make account of his cowardly and inaccurate attack on independent midwives, and on women' choice of place and manner of birthing choices. I have already complained through yahoo, but they have referred me to Google.
Yours sincerely,
Deborah Purdue
Bloggers not immune from defamation
Filed Under Blogs, Internet Public Relations, Online, PR Disasters, Technology
The Guardian’s Clare Dyer has a great article (great cos it combines my twin loves of football and blogging) warning that abusive bloggers may face expensive libel claims over online defamation. Court orders obliging websites to disclose the identity of users posting anonymous defamatory remarks began in 2001. Taking oop the Sheffield Wednesday story Clare writes:
“Disgruntled Sheffield Wednesday fans who vented their dissatisfaction with the football club’s bigwigs in anonymous internet postings may face expensive libel claims after the chairman, chief executive and five directors won a high-court ruling last week…” forcing the owner of the owlstalk.co.uk (Sheff Wed’s nickname is the Owls) website to reveal the posters’ identity.
The case debunks the myth that anonymity gives users of internet forums and chatrooms carte blanche to say whatever they like. Dominic Bray, of K&L Gates, Sheffield Wednesday’s solicitors, said:”…the internet is no different to any other place of publication, and if somebody is making defamatory comments about people then they should be held responsible for it. What these cases do is just confirm that’s the law - the law applies to the internet as much as it does to anything else.” For the hyper-interested, here’s how Sheff Wed’s directors went for the bloggers…
Revealing the Sheffield Wednesday fans was comparatively easy since there was no secret about the website owner. The next move was to apply for a
court order requiring him to reveal the identities of “Halfpint” and the other fans behind what the club’s lawyers described as a “sustained campaign of vilification”. The judge ordered that three fans whose postings might “reasonably be understood to allege greed, selfishness, untrustworthiness and dishonest behaviour”, should be unmasked. Their right to maintain their anonymity and express themselves freely was outweighed by the directors’ entitlement to
take action to protect their reputation, he said.
exact URLs for complaint:
http://nhsblogdoc.blogspot.com/04/madwives-are-back.html
http://nhsblogdoc.blogspot.com/03/independent-madwives-more-allegations.html
Hippocratic Oath sections:
"I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone."
"In every house where I come I will enter only for the good of my patients, keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing "
"All that may come to my knowledge in the exercise of my profession or in daily commerce with men, which ought not to be spread abroad, I will keep secret and will never reveal."
"If I keep this oath faithfully, may I enjoy my life and practice my art, respected by all men and in all times; but if I swerve from it or violate it, may the reverse be my lot."
Doing harm - check
intentional ill-doing - check
revealing secrets - check
swerving from the oath - check
violating it - check
1. What is your email address?
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Email Address: [email protected]
2. Who are you reporting?
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Yahoo! ID: Dr Crippen
3. What is the violation?
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Subject: Defamation
4. In which blog do you believe this abuse is occuring?
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Blog Name: NHSblogdoctor
Message Title: Independent madwives
Message URL: http://nhsblogdoc
5. Enter additional information here:
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This person is ill informed, ignorant of the whole story, a coward
hiding behind the name of a criminal and inaccurate. I cannot belief
that he is a doctor, although he purports to be a) because he has so
much time to maintain such an awful site, and b) because the first remit
of a doctor is to 'do no harm'. He does.
Other ID: Dr Crippen: Other id provided Yahoo id from form
"https://amt.yahoo.com/amt/dosearch? token=Po1amyhQB04aJsz. SxhXD5zuobHub
OCpiczkcjGFFbA&-quot;
Machine: Unknown
OS: unknown
Browser: Default Browser 0
REMOTE_ADDR: 86.170.192.159
REMOTE_HOST: host86-170-192-159.range86-170.btcentralplus.com
Date Originated: Wednesday June 10 - 22:36:04
Cookies: disabled
AOL: no
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