If it’s not enough that the Government may well end up censoring my blog, Australia’s favourite censorship loon Deborah Robinson is now threatening to sue me for libel (here).
As I said in the last post: she is publishing press releases from a group that has a message of hate. At the time of writing she has chosen not to detail exactly which parts of the Australian Family Association’s beliefs she does or doesn’t believe in. It is not for I to suggest that by association she herself is a homophobic bigot, but certainly if I was to start say posting press releases from far-right groups people may come to the conclusion that I might be, by association, a hater as well. It is a natural presumption to make, but again it is not for I to make that presumption nor would I print such an accusation. I’d note: I said she is supporting haters by running their press releases, and as a fact this cannot be regarded a libel.
Funnily enough one of Deborah Robinson’s favourite phrases against those who disagree with her is that they have no credibility. My dear: you wouldn’t know the meaning of the word, and certainly by quoting nutters like the AFA what any credibility you once had was just flushed down the shitter.
BTW: Mom’s Blogging Carnival folks, how do you guys feel about providing links to a site that runs media releases from the AFA, particularly given the AFA is anti womens choice, anti feminism and just full of hate?
Update: she now claims she only supports the AFA on the one issue. So be it, but she’s still got the press release up. Oh, and she threatened to sue again.
Update2: Deborah has now removed the post and has asked privately for a truce. As long as there’s no further volleys back from her side I’ve agree to it. My energy is better directed at the Government anyway. My many, many thanks to those who have offered support with this. It shows that channeled together we might still have a chance of saving free speech in Australia
Deborah said: “If you can?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t tell between restricting access to pornography and censorship then you are a bigger idiot than I thought you were. How can you compare protecting kids to censorship?”
It seems pretty clear to me that protecting kids (either actually or the pretense of) is just a subset, outcome or “benefit” of censorship. Censoring is clearly the overarching topic here.
She had me laughing with the “How dare you …” line – that’s censoring right there! Telling you what you can and can’t say.
She sounds too confused to be able to put a cohesive case together to sue.
I contacted Duncan by email and we have agreed to disagree on this issue and to stop the feud between us. As two reasonable people, we agreed that life is too short and we will move on from this. I wish you and your readers well Duncan.
Deborah Robinson
Sad – it could have become a healthy discussion to help one or both parties clarify their position for their own benefit, so they could better articulate their point of view in future and to better understand what they actually believe in … but in the absence of such a discussion probably better that a ceasefire has been called. I wish you well also Deborah.
This is a re-post of a comment I have left on Ms. Robinson’s site:
Whilst we aren’t guaranteed free speech in Australia, many of us take it for granted.
Be thankful that you live in a country where debates (on and off line) can take place.
People have the ability to make their thoughts visible to others and the people reading them can draw their own conclusions.
Just because a blog or web site allows posts does not mean they can’t or won’t be edited by the people running the site.
You are in the position where you have the ability to post documents on the web and have the ability to edit comments made as easily as Duncan does on his site.
I’m not one of Duncan’s “following”, nor am I one of yours.
I real a lot of information both on and off line and draw my own conclusions about many matters every day as should anyone who wants to make up their own mind. There are always at least two sides to every story, not always reported by a single source.
It’s good that the two of you have differing views. Hopefully you will both be able to express them coherently, without resorting to childish name calling in future.
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