G'day! Thanks for returning!
 Donna Papacosta |
Donna Papacosta asks if the time is right to train all employed bloggers (whether officially sanctioned by their employer to blog or not) in crisis communication and media handling.
I just can see the lawyers biting their fingernails down to their knuckles at the reminder that unofficial, unsanctioned, un risk-assessed statements might escape into the great unwashed public domain.
The only solution for their angst, as far as I can see, is if the blog has WRIT LARGE across it a disclaimer as to the legal liability of any company (and theirs in particular) mentioned in the blog.
But if a blogger is shown (either transparently or via subsequent disclosure) to have been in receipt of media training by a company, then surely it could be argued that the company has tacitly permitted the blog.
And if any disclosure statements are required to be made, surely that is prima facie evidence for prior knowledge of the possible contents of a blog and its existence, leading a company to risk exposure to liability despite the disclaimer.
I don’t think we have heard the last of the ‘legal liability versus freedom of information’ debate by any means…
