“Right of reply” laws the latest Italian attack on Web
The Italian government is reportedly planning to bring right-of-reply media laws online, despite serious logistical problems with applying such rules to the Web. It’s the latest in a series of incidents where officials have attempted to restrict online freedoms.
According to the BBC’s Click program, the government is planning to bring online publishing under the same rules as print journalism. Bloggers would now not only be forced to correct factual errors, but to give anyone mentioned in an article the opportunity to reply if they disagree with the piece.
For a site such as Blorge, that wouldn’t be a problem; we’re happy to make corrections or clarifications, and people mentioned in our reports can and do reply in our comments section. But for individual bloggers, the proposed application of the law doesn’t make sense.
The BBC notes that anyone failing to publish a reply within two days would face a fine of 10,000 euros (approximately $14,000). While a daily newspaper would have no problems with that, what happens to a private blogger who posts an entry, then goes on a weekend break and doesn’t check their e-mails?
While right-of-reply laws may have a fair role in newspapers (that’s a separate debate), these proposals also fail to take into account the level playing field that is the internet. If a national newspaper writes something false about you, it’s pretty much impossible for most people to publish their own newspaper to put across your side of the story. But when wronged by a private blogger, there is little to stop somebody replying through their own blog and potentially reaching the same audience.
This isn’t the first time Italy’s legal system has clashed with the online community. An ongoing case involving a YouTube clip of a boy being bullied could make social media unviable in the country. Google executives are standing trial accused of defamation and privacy violations over the clip.
While prosecutors accept it’s impossible for the site to pre-vet all videos before users publish them, they want firms to employ more staff for monitoring clips and to take down any unsuitable material much more quickly. While that’s an admirable goal, it could prove impractical for many sites and threaten their operations in the country.
Perhaps the most serious attack on online freedoms came in 2007 when government ministers backed proposals to require anyone who writes a blog to form a publishing company, register with a government agency and even pay a tax. Fortunately a hostile response from internet users and media alike put a quick end to that idea.
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August 18th, 2009
The legislators in in most countries – no only in Italy, do fail to take into account the level playing field of the Internet, and they will keep trying to change the rules until there is no freedom left
August 20th, 2009
If they want to take blood from a stone, let them try. It just shows you the idiots that are in authority nowadays, with nothing better to do with their time than come up with stupid rules, when they should be concentrating on more serious matters, as there are plenty of them about.
I sometimes wonder why we pay them for their work, if that’s all they can achieve, never mind anything else.