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Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Ind. Courts - "Online commenter IDs may be divulged" says story

Yesterday's oral argument before the Court of Appeals in the case of Indiana Newspaper, Inc., D/B/A/ The Indianapolis Star (for background, start with this ILB entry from Dec. 10th and its links)is the subject of a story reported today by Dan Carden in the NWI Times. Some quotes:

INDIANAPOLIS | The Indiana Court of Appeals seems likely to require disclosure of the names and identifying information of anonymous commenters who make defamatory statements on newspaper websites.

A three-judge appellate panel clearly was not persuaded Monday by an Indianapolis Star argument that online comments are the equivalent of anonymous news tips, which would exempt them from disclosure under Indiana's journalist shield law.

The state's largest newspaper was sued last year after online reader "Downwiththecolts" accused Jeffrey Miller, former CEO of Junior Achievement of Indiana, of stealing the business education group's funds in the comments section of a story about Miller's retirement.

A Marion County court ordered the Star in March to share its information about "Downwiththecolts" with Miller, who intends to sue for defamation.

Miller's attorney, Kevin Betz, said the Star cannot be allowed to protect a commenter who made false statements harming Miller's reputation. "This is not about free speech. This is about illegal speech," Betz said. "This is an attempt to tell the victim of defamation, who has a constitutional right to repair his reputation, that you're toast."

Judge Carr Darden and Judge Nancy Vaidik, a Porter County native, spent much of the hourlong oral argument session bouncing questions off the attorneys and each other about how best to require disclosure of the names of anonymous commenters.

Vaidik said from the bench she didn't understand why the Star was defending anonymous online comments. "Why would a newspaper want to provide protection for a blogger that they're not using as a confidential source?" Vaidik asked.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 13, 2011 09:27 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts