The South African legal system is currently being confronted by a very modern and as yet, novel, incidence of possible defamation.

An unknown person claimed to be a male prostitute and has recently published a list of names of supposed clients, including various well-known or famous individuals such as politicians, SABC presenters and music personalities, on his blog (online diary). One of the persons who was named has laid a charge of defamation at the Caledon Square police station in Cape Town.

The biggest problem with the such complaints are that the blogs are normally posted anonymously as well as on web services hosted on servers overseas. One would be wondering how the South African Police Services would be able to investigate and bring such a crime before the courts whilst it struggles to even properly investigate simple crimes such as break-ins. The SAPS has indicated that it could be involving Interpol in the investigation.

In the end it would boil down to the individual who was defamed to bring a civil action against the blogger – if he/she is able to ascertain the identity of the blogger. In South African law an action for defamation does not carry very much financial reward, especially if the high costs of the legal action are taken into account.

If the blogger is situated in a foreign jurisdiction the costs would skyrocket, especially in rand terms. The most effective solution would probably be to engage with the service on which the blog is hosted (especially if it is an international service) to restrict access to the content by way of a formal request. These requests are also sometimes known as a takedown notice from the “American Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act”.

All in all, defamation by way of modern communication channels will prove very difficult to police and even more difficult to effectively curb until a global enforcement policy is in place.

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