1. A false publication, as in writing, print, signs, or pictures, that damages a person's reputation.
2. The act of presenting such material to the public.
Just in case anyone missed it, please see the disclaimer that appears on the bottom of each of this blog's pages:
The comments of the Rabid Librarian are © by Elisabeth Eilir Rowan and are the author's own opinions, sometimes curmudgeonly, although rarely malicious. They should not be taken as representative of any other individuals, group, or organisation. Whilst I try to keep my facts straight, this is a journal and not meant to be definitive. Feel free to quote if you like, but please give me credit for anything I wrote and a link back here would be appreciated. Thanks.
The reason for the legal lesson? I've always realised this was a public arena, and as a result I am generally careful about what I blog here. I don't say, violate confidentiality, write excessive diatribes, do personal attacks, that sort of thing. I do give a lot of personal information, a description of my experiences, and my opinions of others and their actions at times. It's obvious that in commenting on, say a news story, that I do not know the people involved and am just expressing the same sort of speculations as folks do around the water cooler. When it comes to people I do know personally--and yes, in three cases (my father, a former friend, and an ex) I have written about negative experiences--I have nevertheless kept my writing to either the facts as I understand them or opinions based on how I was personally treated by the other or my own failings in terms of the relationship, and in each case I have others who would agree with my assessments. Therefore, those comments cannot be called libellous, because they are not false, or at least were told to me and I am relaying them in good faith.
Today I received a message from someone requesting the removal of what he termed 'libellous comments'. I have been careful never to identify this person in such a way that anyone outside my circle of friends and family (who already know the situation) would know who he was. Obviously he does...because he recognises the description. One of the passages he quoted simply described running into him and my emotional reaction, with nothing said about his character at all. He was a very important and difficult part of my life for six years, so it's no surprise, perhaps that he is occasionally mentioned. Given the things that happened during our relationship, it's also not surprising that he might not like the picture I formed of him. If he is embarrassed by the past, that's one thing. If he is simply angry that I would dare write about my life with him and the fallout that resulted, that's another matter entirely.
When I have written, it has been as a means to explain why I am as I am. Like it or not, my experiences with him shaped who I am today, mainly in my overcoming the downward spiral into which I'd gone whilst with him. They are not meant to be malicious, or really even about him, but about me. No, the world doesn't revolve around me, but this blog does.
We all have negative experiences in life. Some fight addictions. Others prejudice. Others disabilities. I fell from naïve childhood to a relationship where I think we both tried desperately to be normal when in fact everything under the surface was sucking the life out of the relationship and those in the bubble which we were inside.
To remove the comments would, I think, be pretending that those years did not happen. They would be caving to untruth. I will review them and see if there is anything said in the heat of the moment that does not contribute to the purpose of this blog or otherwise might be misconstrued. But I will not withdraw the truth.
I am somewhat gratified in that of nearly three years' worth of posts, only a few even mentioned this person. That's actually rather positive, considering frankly how many years of counselling it took to deal with the damage of that relationship. Hopefully this person has moved on as well; I'm sure our relationship was not healthy for him, either.
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