Urgent message to Lord Soley for guidelines or legislation re mainstream media and online libel and slander

R.I.P. Michael Joseph Jackson August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009. (Photo source: soumya/blog.taragana.com)

The following message is for Lord Soley who ought to be a Guinness World Record holder for being the world's first blogging Lord. Lords of the Blog is Clive's brainchild. Sadly, his original blog (circa 2003-2007), Clive Soley MP, has disappeared from the Internet.

Dear Clive, I am posting this message to you at Lords of the Blog in the hope that the site acts as an email contact address for you. I have published the following today (Saturday, 27 June 2009) at my new blog, BLAIR FOUNDATION WATCH - A Blairite's blog:

Dear Clive,

I hope this finds you well. I often think of you and still miss your first blog and great writings on press standards. Hence the reason for this note to you (that I have turned into a blog post) to request you please to start writing blog posts at Lords of the Blog that focus on ways and means that people can be protected from libelous and slanderous commentary published about them in mainstream media and the blogosphere.

Over the past six years, it pains me to think of the miles of outrageous lies and disgusting foul hateful comments that I have seen online about Bill Clinton, George W Bush, Michael Jackson, Prince Charles and Tony Blair, to name a few. Even though a court of law found the late great Michael Jackson not guilty, the world now knows that it contributed to costing him a fortune and his life.

Something must be done to protect people from being verbally ripped to shreds and hounded to financial ruin and/or death. In my view, the rabidness of feral journalists and commentators online has become worse, not better, post-Diana, Princess of Wales.

Recently, I have interacted online with a blogger who goes by the name of 'Blair Supporter' or 'B'. S/he anonymously authors a three-year-old blog called 'Keeping Tony Blair for PM' (recently re-named 'Tony Blair').

We are horrified by the grossly unfair treatment that Tony Blair is getting at the hands of mainstream media, pressure groups, politicians (particularly Clare Short), bloggers and commentators. The avalanche of unfair accusations, lies and propaganda could become unstoppable and deadly dangerous as it spreads around the world for all to see in the run up to, during, and after the inquiry on Iraq.

We want to be able to do something about it. At the moment we are working hard tracking and blogging, writing rebuttals, responding to commentary, etc., but there is only so much two people can do without being armed with some sort of warning that carries weight.

For example, in our blogs, and when finding slanderous comments, etc., we need to be able to point to a URL that provides the latest Codes of Conduct and/or guidelines on legislation that warns publishers (and anonymous authors) against libel, slander, character assassination, bullying, etc. If the latest Codes of Conduct are useless and legislation does not exist, we need your help and advice on pushing for urgent legislation.

Also, please see (copied here below) what BNP leader Nick Griffin said about Tony Blair at the BNP's recent annual conference.

Clive, I hope you will be able to find the time to do some blogging on the above issues.

Kindest regards
Ingrid Jones (Ms)
Address and phone number (on the coast of southwest England, UK) is still the same, since 2000.

Author of:
http://sudanwatch.blogspot.com
http://blairfoundation.blogspot.com

PS Clive, here are four links - including the one re BNP mentioned here above.

Ethics for the “Feral Beast”
BY ANNE-KATRIN ARNOLD, blogs.worldbank.org, 08/13/2008
http://blogs.worldbank.org/publicsphere/ethics-feral-beast

Excerpt:

What if a free media is not a watchdog guarding citizens’ rights, but a “feral beast,” sinking its teeth into any politician’s throat? Legislation providing for a free press is not sufficient to establish a democratic press. The media itself must be accountable for its own actions. Journalists must know that their first duty is toward the public, not toward their shareholders. Codes of conduct and a sufficient degree of self-regulation must be in place, preventing media frenzy that may result in biased reporting, disregard of facts, or plain disregard of the public. Media assistance donors are aware of that and provide journalism training to promote, among other objectives, professional ethics. For instance, the UK Department for International Development (DFID), UNESCO, and Internews support the establishment of press councils and professional codes to strengthen the media’s ability to self-regulate.

“At present, we are all being dragged down by the way media and public life interact,” Blair stated toward the end of his remarkable speech. There is no doubt that democracy needs a free and independent media system. But upholding freedom of the press comes with a subscription to another democratic value: balance.

- – -

Blair: media is feral beast obsessed with impact

By PATRICK WINTOUR, political editor, The Guardian, 13 June 2007
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2007/jun/13/media.television

Excerpt:

British newspapers will and should be subject to some form of new external regulation, the outgoing prime minister, Tony Blair, said yesterday in a broadside that attacked the media for behaving like feral beasts and eschewing balance or proportion.

- - -

The Internet Journalist - Fact Checking and Defamation requirements
By Don Burleson, Burleson Consulting website:

http://www.dba-oracle.com/internet_journalism_libel_laws.htm
http://www.dba-oracle.com/internet_publishers.htm
- - -

Ref: Nick Griffin, MEP for the North West, addressing the BNP’s victory rally in Blackpool on 20 June 2009.

In a wide ranging speech which covered several topics he also revealed that he would personally be laying a war crimes charge against Tony Blair over an incident in the Balkans.

See this excerpt from BNP News [20 June 2009, BNP website: 'Establishment Parties Have Turned Britain into a Multicultural Bankrupt Slum, Says BNP Leader]:

“We all know that they have announced that there will now be another inquiry into the Iraq War,” Mr Griffin said. “Of course there should not be an inquiry, but rather a war crimes trial, based on the principles established during the Nuremburg Trials.

“The accused must include the politicians and the propagandists who generated the background to the war,” he continued.

“This will include the newspaper editors and media owners who are just as responsible for the lies which led to that war.

“However, we have enough evidence right now to make a case against Jeff Hoon and Tony Blair for an incident during the Balkans War when a Serbian TV station was bombed. I will be laying a charge with a central London police station very soon over this matter.

“Even if they do not want to take it any further, the groundwork has been laid for it to be taken to the war crimes commission in The Hague. As an MEP, I have the right to pursue this matter, and Tony Blair is going to have that hanging over him,” Mr Griffin said to applause from the crowd.

- - -
Update about half an hour after publishing the above blog post:

Here is a copy of my comment that is awaiting moderation at Lord Soley's blog post at Lords of the Blog - News of the World and Lobbying - 05 February 2009:

Ingrid Jones
June 27, 2009 at 6:45 pm
Dear Clive, I have just tried twice to post a comment here but as soon as I press send a white page appears saying “discarded”.

So, I hope to get my message to you via my new blog
BLAIR FOUNDATION WATCH – A Blairite’s blog

Please see:
SATURDAY, 27 JUNE 2009
Message to Lord Soley: Call for guidelines on legislation against mainstream media and online libel and slander

http://blairfoundation.blogspot.com/2009/06/message-to-lord-soley-call-for.html#links

Kindest regards,
Ingrid