I AM THE FORCE

Bloggers' Free Speech Rights Upheld By Delaware Supreme Court

DELAWARE---The Delaware Supreme Court has become the first Supreme Court in the nation to rule that an Internet service provider doesn't have to disclose the identity of an anonymous blogger who posts alleged defamatory comments about an elected official on the Internet.

The ruling will no doubt set a legal standard on the issue nationwide including a case in Florida in which the Hillsborough sheriff seeks the learn the identities of posters on a message board for police officers at www.leoaffairs.com.

In its 34-page decision which reversed a lower court decision, the Supreme Court said that the free speech rights of the anonymous bloggers outweighed a town councilman's argument that he was defamed.

Chief Justice Myron Steele wrote that Internet speech was like anonymous political pamphleteering, a practice the U.S. Supreme Court had characterized in 1995 as "an honorable tradition of advocacy and dissent". Steele wrote that a court should not order the unmasking of an anonymous Internet poster unless a plaintiff offers strong proof of defamation.

"We are concerned that setting the standard too low will chill potential posters from exercising their First Amendment right to speak anonymously," Steele wrote. "The possibility of losing anonymity in a future lawsuit could intimidate anonymous posters into self-censoring their comments or simply not commenting at all."

Steele also noted that plaintiffs in such cases can use the Internet to respond to character attacks and "generally set the record straight," and that, as in Cahill's case, blogs and chatrooms tend to be vehicles for people to express opinions, not facts.

http://courts.delaware.gov/opinions/(ok4h0er5tmzekj55bow11sjp)/download.aspx?ID=67130

10-10-05
© 2005 North Country Gazette

# posted by TPDN : 2:49 PM