Irish flag over the President's Residence
Prominent Irish businessman Declan Ganley has set a precedent for legal proceedings involving defamation and libel on social sites, including Twitter and Facebook, as he reached an out-of-court settlement yesterday with blogger Kevin Barrington over defamatory tweets he published in December of last year.
In what is believed to be the first of its kind in Ireland, blogger Kevin Barrington (@kevbarring) was forced to make a public apology to Declan Ganley over his comments on Twitter and award a “substantial” donation to Ganley’s charity of choice – the Poor Clares.
Declan Ganley (@declanganley) is a well-known Irish businessman and founder of pan-European political party Libertas – himself a candidate in the 2009 European Parliament election.
Barrington blogged a short apology on January 2 and again tweeted his apology on January 3 (which Ganley of course retweeted);
https://twitter.com/kevbarring/status/286632956733313025″ data-datetime=”2013-01-03T00:39:56+00:00
Mixed in with other nonsensical tweets posted late last night, Barrington conveys his obvious disdain for media lawyer Paul Tweed, who represented Ganley in his case;
See the Brits are working on Twitter rules to stop the Paul Tweeds of the world scamming a free lunch
— Kevin Barrington (@kevbarring) January 9, 2013
Ganley’s Belfast-based lawyer, Paul Tweed (@Paul_Tweed), describes how Twitter, and other social media sites, are no different than any other medium when it comes to defamation and libel – and therefore no new legislation is needed. Tweed stated yesterday,
“I think there was a general feeling that Twitter is different from the print media, but the same defamation law applies.”
Tweed mentioned how the Lord McAlpine case in Britain served as a “wake-up call” to users of social media who do not appreciate their liability for defamatory content that they publish.
With the precedent now set under current law, Tweed anticipates that Ganley’s case is “the first of many coming down the tracks” and stated that in the last 12 months, there has “been a major surge in people consulting us regarding abusive comments on social networking sites in general and Twitter in particular”.
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Not sure if gaining an out of court settlement is a precedant as it has been done before. In most cases (in the UK) the people paying up have been mugs as no judge would have entertained the cases if litigation had proceeded. There are many obstacles for a claimant to get past although I understand suing in Ireland is easier (if one case of a 5 year old kid successfully suing Lidl for £5,000 for libel is true) As for Lord Mcalpine there are numerous reasons why his action against Sally Bercow has to fail - not least the precedants concerning over-compensation. Just correcting a common misconception and explaining that being a libel claimant is not a walk in the park.
Well at least you didn't buy the spin that I was found guilty in a landmark case.
Nonsensical?
Only to you pal.
Late last night?
What do you want to be, my girlfriend or mother.
Tone could do with a slap but not devoid of intelligence.
Cheers.
Have a nice day.
K