Who has the deepest pockets: penalising the messenger

David Heath
Monday, 26 April 2010 10:51

Opinion and Analysis

When we want retribution, modern society doesn't much care who is to blame; instead, we want to be sure the organisation with the most money is squarely in our sights.

I have read with interest the large number of civil and criminal actions recently where, rather than seek full and complete retribution from the perpetrators, the protagonist sees the messenger as having the most to lose, be it respect, money or even liberty.

The most recent incident comes to us from Brazil where an accusation of paedophilia against a priest in Minas Gerais state was made on Google's social networking site Orkut.  According to local reports, the poster referred to the priest (identified only as J.R.): "the paedophile ... the thief who has a lover."

Judge Alvimar de Avila of the appeals court said, "By making space available on virtual networking sites, in which users can post any type of message without any checks beforehand, with offensive and injurious content, and, in many cases, of unknown origin, (Google) assumes the risk of causing damage."

On that basis, Google was fined 15,000 Brazilian Reais (around $9,000 Australian dollars).  Thank goodness it didn't happen in the highly litigious United States.

There was no mention of any penalty levied against the actual author of the accusation; or even whether they were ever identified. 

As an aside, what if this was written on a slip of paper and pinned up on the noticeboard at a local supermarket?  Would the supermarket have been fined, or would common sense have prevailed?  I thought I knew the answer to that question; perhaps I don't any more.