Score Another For Citizen Journalism

April 3, 2008

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Webmasters scored another victory in the court system recently when a Vermont judge tossed out a defamation lawsuit brought by a woman upset by comments made about her by a third party commentator.

Superior Court Judge David

When news of the lawsuit originally broke, iBrattleboro founders Lise LePage and Christopher Grotke gained support from online donations to their legal defense and counsel* from Harvard's Citizen Media Law Project.

Online anonymity has proven to be at once a boon for free speech and a headache for those seeking recompense for libel and defamation claims. So far, it has been difficult to unmask defamers as the process is invasive to spark concerns about privacy and abuse of whistleblowers via litigation.

*As mentioned in the comments, this word can cause confusion in context. Legal representation and counsel was provided Jim Maxwell, not by Citizen Media Law Project. The intended connotation of the word "counsel" was meant to imply advice and guidance, not official representation. Sorry for the confusion.