In today’s symposium we firstly discussed a question raised by another student. It was: How much freedom do we have when writing critically of others work before we become liable for defamation or copyright infringement? This is something I have thought about also. You can’t exactly jump on your blog and badmouth whoever you please.

Someone asked if it’s okay to link a Youtube video to your blog, for example. Adrian answered that this is okay, as in most cases they (Youtube) are accepting the liability for that. He also mentioned that there is no such thing as freedom of speech in Australian media law. The only country that does have it is South America I believe.

There is a difference between opinion and criticism. Criticism is informed by a position of knowledge. So basically, “If you don’t know what you’re talking about, shut up.” Simple!