I was a panelist at today’s New Media Relations Conference, and one of the hot topics was about whether one should sue bloggers or not. Together with me on the panel were Steven Gwynn-Jones (Executive Editor from Mediacorp) and Ryan Huang (Market Strategist from IG Singapore). The moderator was Maura Fogarty.
To answer that question, I brought up a recent example – Data Register Pte Ltd. Because of a blogpost I’d written, they sent me a legal letter of demand to remove the blogpost and publish an apology they had crafted for me. After my email correspondence with the lawyers, and not removing the blogpost, I was sent another letter. Here’s the letter and my response.
I was content not to say anything else about the company after the first blogpost, but since they had engaged lawyers who sent me less-than-friendly letters, I wrote to the PM (and got a reply!), DPM, Ministers, MPs and even went on national TV (Channel 8 news) to speak out against this company. And of course, I made a police report too, and have received letters from the police and Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) in response.
So… has threatening bloggers been beneficial for this company? I think not.
Always approach the blogger personally and seek to rectify the issue or misunderstanding. Once you take the legal route, you may get more than you’ve bargained for. ;)
