Lee Kaplan Blogger Salahi looses in Court
Small Claims court might just be the way to go if you think that a blogger has defamed or slandered you in public. Blogger Yaman Salahi, a student at UC Berkeley lost a small claims lawsuit against his blog “Lee Kaplan Watch”. Salahi is now ordered to pay 7500 dollars in restitution and 75 dollars in court costs to Lee Kaplan.
If anything says “be careful what you write” it is going to be this. We have the classic “Fired for Blogging” cases, too many to mention or go into detail on. This one is new though, an award against a blogger, in small claims court, where it was not issued as a “Freedom of Speech” issue.
There is a lot about blogging that can really tick people off, and the examples of bad behavior in blogs, on forums, or other public communications are well known and well documented. The EFF even has guidelines on safe and secure blogging right here. These guidelines are strait forward, and easy to use. Plus if you get into a really bad case, the EFF might help you and then of course they might not.
The idea about blogging or any form of journalism is to always have your sources strait. not saying that Salahi didn’t, I am not familiar with all the particulars of the case, nor why the judge would do what they did, the idea of taking on a public figure still predisposes someone to writing facts.
Depending on what the facts are, where they come from, and what spin has been put on those facts, makes the end information debatable. Salahi has not been told not to blog, nor what the actual award was for on the case. That will be for supplementary cases in small claims court to work out, and there will have to be a body of work on this in the legal system to provide guidance for small claims judges.
In the mean time, if you take on a public figure, make sure of the data that you are using, and if you make any form of accusation, that it is based in fact, or that your opinion is widely held by others. We wish the best of luck to Salahi, and would be interested in seeing what other cases are going to come to court because of this ruling.
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