Comments on: Internet freedom prevails over Guardian gag order

By: Ian Kemmish

Ian Kemmish — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 10:18:38 +0000

Citiboy – well, naturally Ian Hislop wouldn’t be funny if he was impartial; that’s the essence of satire. And if you wave an environmental story anywhere near the Guardian’s op-ed team the results are pretty much a foregone conclusion. My point was merely that, having already established that the lawyers were not being exactly bright, they were also demonstrating normal human nature.

Yes, in an ideal journalistic world, I’d like to see someone of the stature of John Simpson ferreting about on the ground gathering real evidence, and not taking either side’s word for granted. But those days appear to be behind us, and social media are a poor substitute.

By: Citiboy

Citiboy — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:48:13 +0000

Good point about Hansard, Ian. But what do you mean by your comment that “At least one of which has a record of partiality in the reporting of the Trafigura affair”.
If you mean the Guardian and Private Eye don’t just publish the line put out by the company’s spin doctors then, that’s a good thing – right? Or perhaps you would prefer that we only ever get to hear the spin?

By: Glenn

Glenn — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:20:44 +0000

and yet you seem afraid to even mention what the question had been.. ?

By: Ian Lowe

Ian Lowe — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:44:34 +0000

People who use social media are too lazy and/or stupid?

What an absolutely moronic thing to say – as even a moments casual interaction will show, social media users represent a cross section of the populace: and that cross section will include people that are significantly more active and intelligent than your good self!

in this instance, Twitter and the blogosphere have acted like a fire alarm, calling attention to Carter Ruck’s obnoxious conduct – the real work now begins in writing to MPs, lobbying parliament and no doubt directly confronting Carter Ruck.

Social Media are a tool – and an exceptionally useful tool at that – for people to empower their lives.

Your participation is not required.

By: Orgizmo

Orgizmo — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:56:09 +0000

You gotta love the internet, it’s like a tv with billions of channels and a book had a love child.

By: Ian Kemmish

Ian Kemmish — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:16:37 +0000

All this proves is that people who use social media are too lazy and/or stupid to go and find a copy of Hansard for themselves. The content of a tabled question is not, and to the best of my knowledge never has been, secret. The lawyers seeking the injunction were certainly every bit as as stupid as the people trying to defeat it without going through the courts, but the injunction itself wasn’t really that important – it did after all reportedly only name two publications. At least one of which has a record of partiality in the reporting of the Trafigura affair.