Its a bit late, but worth mentioning all the same. A few days ago (over the weekend), the International Herald Tribune wrote a piece on how a blogger in France was slapped with a lawsuit with what sounds like the equivalent of slander. Not being a lawyer, I can’t comment on material charges any more than that, but the substance of the charge seems to be as follows:

Charles Gouz, a physician who operates the site debriefing.org wrote a piece which allegedly was insulting to a French Television station. Apparently, most of his piece republished a critical article from a conservative Israeli website which questioned the way that the television station covered a controversial piece of news in France.

Pierre Lucat is also named in the suit, who is named as the legal owner of a site called liguededefensejuive.com, which urged its readers to protest and demonstrate against France 2 (the television site in question). The suit appears to be largely symbolic in nature as the damages it seeks are nominal (1 euro each).

These charges are just the latest in an evolving movement to target bloggers for their actions and their writings … and in this case, merely reposting other bloggers posts, or, in blogger lingo, promoting the echochamber.

Perhaps it provides a cautionary tale to bloggers who live in climates that are politically sensitive.

It seems like ANYTHING on your blog is up for scrutiny and public opinion — and probably off of it as well.

Will we see people being sued, arrested or worse for what is commented publicy on forums? In the comments?

While data continues to reinforce the fact that few internet users actually read blogs and even fewer subscribe to RSS feeds, the influence that a blogs hold are substantiated by these off-line efforts to sue, silence, arrest and otherwise intimidate them.

The difficulties Dr. Gouz faces are relatively tame, however, as the intentions of France 2 are operating within a legal system of checks and balances, and a rule of law.

A sampling of other bloggers who have met unfortunate consequences:

• Sina Motellebi, a blogger and journalist: April 2003. Arrested for allegedly “threatening the national security by giving interviews to Persian language radios outside Iran, wrtiting articles both in newspapers and his weblog.” Apparently he did escpae later that year , however.
• Abdolkarim Nabil Seliman, an Egyptian lawstudent and blogger: November 2005. arrested and detained for “his anti-Islamic and anti-government writings”. Whereabouts unknown.
• Hao Wu, a Chinese documentary film maker and blogger: March 2006, where he was arrested in China for unknown reasons. As reported by BlogCritics, speculation was that the Chinese Government was concerned about secret networks he was involved in regarding Christian Churches.
• Larry LeBlanc, a blogger: June 2006. Arrested and detained for photographing people at a business conference. As reported by the CBC, he was heard to have said “I’m a blogger, I’m a blogger. I’m just taking pictures!”. Mr. LeBlanc’s website at oldmaison.blogspot.com/, focuses on local political issues.
• Ali Sayed al-Shihabi, a Syrian school teacher and blogger: June 2006. Arrested with no particular explanation. “It is believed his detainment may be linked to articles he has written on a political website.” according to the Observer. Amnesty International feels that he may be at risk for torture.