Freedom of speech, freedom of the press

Tom Reynolds, in his excellent blog, has made available the Powerpoint presentation of his presentation on blogging v the media.

This brings up an interesting example of how the press, supposedly regulated, and supposedly populated by individuals who have to undergo courses on ethics, can overstep the mark (I am trying to be diplomatic here).

Girl with a One Track Mind is a blog. I have to confess I haven't read it, in fact even if I was inclined to, I would worry as it contains some pretty explicit content, and anyone reading over my shoulder in the office would rightly be able to kick up a fuss!

The Sunday Times tried to identify "Abby Lee", the girl in question. They used tactics outlined in Tom's presentation, and that Abby herself has outlined in this post.

The heartening thing is that this case demonstrates the power of people in communities. One could argue that the "blogosphere" (like Tom, I hate that word!) is an artificial community, but in some ways it is much more organic than physical communities - people are brought together by shared interests, hence my virtual friendship with JD, a young man who is roughly my age, who shares with me the simultaneous joy and despair of commuting.

If you want proof of this, then simply type the name of Sunday Times journo "Nicholas Hellen" into Google. After his harassment of "Abby", bloggers all around kicked up such a fuss, and tagged the site. So now Nicholas Hellen's legacy is that the first link you see in Google is directly linking to "Abby"'s sexually explicit blog.

I really hope that next time he applies for a job, his prospective employers Google his name...