No right to anonymity? « A Midwife’s Muse

No right to anonymity?

June 18, 2009 at 9:36 pm | In Musings, Winds me up | 6 Comments
Tags: anonymity, Blogging, NightJack

Are any other employees who blog, particularly public sector ones, quaking in their shoes and ‘pulling the blanket over their head’? There I was battling with my laptop’s wi-fi connection when Hubby started reading me an article from The Telegraph and as he read I stopped checking my connections and started veering between feeling indignant and considering whether to delete my blog. What was the content of the article? Well it was about NightJack, sorry, no point in linking as he has ceased blogging and deleted his blog. Why has this police detective given up his Orwell Prize winning blog? Well, it’s all down to The Times challenging his right to remaining anonymous and a certain Mr Justice Eady agreeing with them. This member of the judiciary has been known previously for defending a persons right to privacy, it was he who pronounced that Maxine Carr was entitled to life-long anonymity, in fact “The judge’s critics argue that he has introduced his own “Eady’s law” of privacy by repeatedly ruling against newspapers and building up a formidable body of case law on which public figures can rely when they wish to gag the media”. What happened this time then, why hasn’t case law supported this bloggers right to privacy, perhaps because NightJack isn’t a public figure?

This decision is terrible as far as employees who blog about their jobs, especially if their blog highlights concerns and/or criticises the organisations they work in. I am krill in the blogging ocean, NightJack was registering 60,000 hits a day, a positive blue whale in comparison to Midwifemuse. There are still similarities though that both blogs attempt to portray what our jobs involve, to inform the public and to voice the frustrations encountered when trying to perform our duties. Frustrations generated by the public themselves, whether through misunderstanding the constraints we operate within or deliberately by making unreasonable demands. Frustrations felt as a result of media reporting or, for me, the biggest bugbear of all, bureaucracy. Any similarities end there so I am taking comfort in my microscopic blogging credentials. I wouldn’t say I feel cocooned but I do feel that I am fathoms below the sonar so I shall continue my drifting and not go into a mad panic if I see anyone approaching me with a camera.

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I thought we had the right to speak freely? To be honest, provided any blog content is the truth, I can’t see why there would be a problem. It seems to me that employers who object have something to hide.
In your case, your job related blog posts simply tell us about your day, and if employers would be scared of the public knowing how overworked and understaffed you are, surely the logical thing to do would be to address that problem rather than gagging you. They can’t keep trawling the net and gagging EVERY blogger that mentions such an obvious problem.
If they’re really wise, reading blogs would give employers valuable information about their company and workforce, which they could use to their advantage.

Ah, but I forgot that we live in a mad, mad world, and not the rational, co-operative one for which I keep mistaking it.

Comment by Blue Spice — June 19, 2009 #

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- Blue Spice – I rather think that they would consider it rather more to their advantage to gag a blogger rather than address issues, unless of course there were some ’stars’ to be gained.
  
  Comment by midwifemuse — June 19, 2009 #
  
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I thought of you when I read about this. I mentioned the matter in my own post yesterday
http://flightplot.wordpress.com/2009/06/18/it-makes-you-think/#comment-5765
I’ll be doing a follow-up next week and will mention this excellent post of yours when I do. Take care! xx
PS Blue Spice is so right when she says that we live in a mad, mad world!

Comment by Flighty — June 19, 2009 #

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- Flighty – Just read your post, ooh the politics of allotments! Went to NEC for Gardeners World last weekend, thought that it was wonderful, then found out that I had missed seeing the most amazing flypast, including a Vulcan! Grrrrr
  
  Comment by midwifemuse — June 19, 2009 #
  
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  - Yes it’s all rather sad really! It sounds like you had a good day out at the NEC. I didn’t see any of the flypast either. As a consolation here’s the Vulcan. xx
    http://www.airliners.net/photo/Avro-698-Vulcan/1396805/L/
    
    Comment by Flighty — June 19, 2009 #
Such a sleek aircraft. Hubby said it just accelerated into an impressive vertical climb straight in front of them.

Comment by midwifemuse — June 19, 2009 #

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