Should news sites be held responsible for user comments?
2/3/11
by Dana Liebelson
Chiranuch Premchaiporn, the director and webmaster of an alternative Thai news site, must defend herself in court because Thailand is holding her liable for anti-government comments that users posted on her site.
Although she removed the comments in accordance with demands from the Thai police, Premchaiporn is being charged with computer-related crimes, raising unrest and undermining the government’s sovereignty. She faces a possible prison sentence of over 80 years. Read more on the IJNet Blog.
In your country, are journalists and news outlets held legally accountable for comments posted on their websites? Do you think they should be? Why or why not?
Photo by Luther Bailey, Creative Commons Attribution License
DISGUISTING
In Liberia,under internationally acclaimed media friendly,Pres.Ellen Johnson Sirleaf,Africa's first female President, a journalist was jailed only because of someone comment placed in the paper.
The writer was crtical of a landmark murder case involving government minister and how biase some high profile judges were.
The imprisonment of journalists on the basis of how a reader thinks for me is digusting and inhumane.
I think the profile of any individual government or personality will be dropped if they acted on the basis of a comment in the media.
T.Alexander Bealded Radio Director Kings FM/City FM TV Talkshow host Liberia alex_bealded@yahoo.com +2316657498
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