Following two [or more] media reports about [intellectual] person(s) posting racists and defamatory comments on their blogs, SAMedia Publications yesterday received a warning letter from the Feminist Action Team (FAT), threatening to take legal action against SAMedia Publications for posting defamatory material online.

FAT alleged that SAMedia Publications has held contempt of the Women's Charter and published defamatory material against the apparent rights of females. It also stated SAMedia Publications is to issue an official apology and remove all questionable material found online within 24hrs, or legal action will be taken.

SamHub CEO Mr Nach Leumas responded swiftly to the letter, taking a bold move by issuing a statement that caught the media by surprise: SamHub Inc will also be initiating legal action against the FAT for breaching constitutional rights by compromising the right to the freedom of speech.

It is understood that Mr Leumas has instructed SamHub staff not to close SAMedia Publications or remove any content that has been published prior to the incident. This is the first time SAMedia Publications is being complained for the material it has published.

Mr Jiak Liao Bee from the Lawful Organisation of Solicitors Team (LOST) said that the rising trend of [aggreived] persons raising lawsuits against bloggers can promote a series of copycat lawsuits worldwide, prompting stricter Internal Security Laws.

"If authored content published on blogs were to be held legally accountable, the ISD may soon be raiding homes for diaries to check for questionable content," said Mr Jiak. "Diaries not marked with 'Confidential' and kept in double lock cabinets can be considered as unsecured content that has the potential to be read by others."

At the press conference, Mr Leumas stood firm in his stand that SAMedia Publications cannot be held responsible for the content published in its site because of a clause in its disclaimer. The disclaimer clearly indemnifies SamHub Inc and its subsidaries from any responsibility to the content.

SamHub Inc spokesperson Mr Kar Lee Kong reaffirmed SamHub Inc's decision to counter-sue against the FAT. "First, FAT has infringed constitutional laws," said Mr Kar. "Next, we believe [the FAT] have been selectively blind when they've entered SAMedia Publications. They totally missed out the disclaimer."

When interviewed, President of FAT Ms Chin Tua Chiak told reporters that FAT has commenced legal action as SAMedia Publications did not respond within the stipulated time window. She said that the sexist and chauvinistic nature of SAMedia Publications is discriminative and sexist, and to a certain extent, racist.

Said Ms Chin: "Content placed on blogs are for everyone in the world to see, hence the authors need to be held responsible. Anything controversial, regardless of it being personal views or general opinion, that is published within the blog has the potential to stir up trouble."

However, at the rate new blogs are being created each day, it seems that any enforcement of responsibility is doomed to fail, and coupled with the magnitude of the internet, the FAT would be having a hard time trying to identify each blog that is discriminative.

Annoymous sources within Blogger say that this is not the first time blogs have been used to spread propaganda and impose ideologies. "You could find hundreds of blogs talking about Iraq and Afghanistan and some even display grisly war pictures," said Mr Lai Kuah Bock, a retiree whose pastime is blog surfing and blogging.

"I don't know what is the big fuss about," said Mr Lai. "Maybe the CHENG WOO should start issue licences for blogs or do what they do best: Impose Blog Censorship."

--extracted from The SamHub Times, SAMedia Publications, dated 090505