Boston-area Blogger Threatened by Town Officials
by Matt on Mar 22, 2010 in Legal Issues
The elected leaders of Southborough, Massachusetts, are up in arms over comments left on Susan Fitzgerald’s hyperlocal blog, MySouthborough.com. How up in arms? Well, according to the local paper, one “selectman” (similar to a councilperson, I gather) has contacted the state attorney general’s office for legal advice.
This all dates back to last summer, when someone using the name “Marty” left comments on MySouthborough.com (I believe in this post) that were critical of how the town was conducting its search for a new police chief. The town’s lawyer sent Susan a letter saying they “expect” her to reveal Marty’s identity. In the newspaper article, Selectman Sal Giorlandino had this to say about the person leaving the comments:
“What the individual does not appreciate is that one day he will have to answer in a legal forum and it will have financial consequences,” he said. “I’m not looking to get wealthy, I’m looking to make a statement. This is about promoting civil discourse and this is not the way to behave.”
For her part, Susan wrote a blog post on Friday saying, “I have not revealed the identity of any of the commenters on this blog, nor do I intend to.”
My Thoughts
I’m obviously not a lawyer, but the newspaper article does mention recent court cases that would appear to protect Susan and the commenter on her blog. More than that, though, is the bigger picture:
As hyperlocal blogging/news grows, we’ll continue to see episodes like this — and similar things — that epitomize a growing friction between new forms of journalism and conversation, and local agencies that aren’t used to them.
It wasn’t too long ago that I wrote about the UK blogger who was kicked out of court and an Oregon blogger who also faced a legal threat. Get ready for more of this going forward. (In fact, I’ve decided to start a legal issues category here on Hyperlocal Blogger.)
I’m reminded of Dan Slee’s blog post from last year that talked about the relationship between local bloggers and local government. Though Dan is UK-based, what he writes rings true for local bloggers anywhere, I’d bet.
You might also like:
Comments
3 Responses to “Boston-area Blogger Threatened by Town Officials”
Leave a Reply (please use your real name; company names & other keyword-based names will be deleted)
-
-
Featured Video
Wow! So, I clicked through your link to read the comments by “Marty”, to see if there were any grounds for demanding that their identity be revealed, and I don’t believe there are. I don’t see Marty posting threats, nor committing libel/slander as far as I can tell.
If there isn’t something actionable being done by “Marty”, then I don’t think there is any justification to demand that their identity be revealed. Embarrassing public officials is not grounds for demanding their identity, I believe.
If officials truly are not following the law and are being wishy-washy in the process to select police chiefs and such, I think they need to take their lumps and leave the blogger alone.
If the municipal government has taken that much interest in Fitzgerald’s site, then she’s doing her job right. Kudos to her!
I don’t believe Fitzgerald is legally obligated to reveal Marty’s true identity. However, she does have the right to edit or delete Marty’s comments if he wanders into slander/libel territory, preferably with disclosure that the content was edited.
As Chris points out, a reading of Marty’s comments doesn’t indicate that he’s done anything wrong, dangerous or illegal. It’s absurd if his comment is cause of his identity being demanded. He didn’t threaten anyone or do anything but voice his opinion.
I think it’s a great idea that you’re starting a new category on legal issues, Matt, and why do I get the feeling that the more little local folks blog, the worse governments and ‘big guys’ are going to look by overreacting to anything that bothers them?