PEARL IN SCOOP NEWS

John Bishop's Communications Line - 16 September 2008Issue Number 69 of 16 September
It’s all about persuasion: getting the media to run your story (if you are a PR person); getting people to believe your story (if you are Winston Peters); getting people to remove a story (if you are Pearl Going fighting a blogger); or getting people to turn against the other guy (if you are running for President of the United States.) Getting good service in Australia (and the perfect job) also feature along with a collection of “Manglish” examples and some strange folk stories. Read on.

Responding on the Internet
Media law specialist Stephen Price raises an interesting question in a recent posting. As we all access websites through an ISP, one of his students argued: “if ISPs are sending us material that is defamatory, or in contempt of court, or breaches confidentiality or privacy or a suppression order… aren’t they liable for it?” Under current New Zealand law Price thinks that could well be the case.“If the Solicitor-General writes to all the New Zealand ISPs and says: “X blog contains material that is prejudicial to upcoming trial Y. You are not hosting X blog, but you are allowing your users to access it when they type in X blog’s URL. If you continue to allow such access, you may be prosecuted for contempt of court”. I can’t see that that the ISP has any choice but to block the material. China manages it, so it must be technically possible.”Blogger David Farrar takes a different view and cites the example of Pearl Going, a sometime model and would be Auckland socialite, who was upset about web postings questioning her background (There is a whole saga about this if you are interested – click below). She requested the removal of some material, which was declined. She then got a lawyer who repeated the request and when that was also declined, the lawyer wrote to the ISP hosting the site, and the ISP pulled the material. However, within hours the material complained about was up on a new site, www.pearlgoingisafake.com. And the matter gained considerably more prominence than it had as just a few posts on a site not much accessed. What this proves, says Farrar, is that attacking posts on legal grounds or putting the heavy hand on the ISP is not the way to go. “The Pearl Going case is a great example of what not to do,” he said. “Comment and respond and do so openly, not anonymously. That’s a much better approacch"


So just before the Pearl Going website was pulled down by Police this news article was posted. Obviously the author doesn't check his facts correctly although Pearl Going is absolutely gorgeous we have been told by reliable sources that she has never been a model. Infact when she has been approached by agents we are told she firmly turns them down. Ain't it daft what some people will assume? Oh she is a stunning girl must be a model?. As for the comments about what not to do? Do we live in a society where we should put up with lies been told about ourselves and our family? Pearl Going stood up for something. She stood up for her right as an individual to object to defamatory comment about herself. Should she apologise for having the money to go hire a lawyer (Steven Price none the less the top Internet Lawyer in the country and top professor at Victoria Law School). As the article states she asked reasonably time and time again for the material to be removed. If you have the resources to fight an injustice why would you not? Possibly this should not be a lesson for her on what not to do. Possibly this should be a lesson for the blogger that then after been forced to remove the defamatory material went sour and bought an off shore site to host it. A silly move that got police involved into two countries and will now result in serious consequences. The lesson is more along the lines of watch what beef you pick with a girl who's family touts serious money. Because as Olivia Palmero a New York socialite said best "I may be a young girl," she told another socialite, "but behind every young girl is a powerful father."

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