Lord McAlpine has accepted £125k this morning from ITV, £185k last week form BBC and he hasn’t even started on Twitter people yet #innocentface

Good luck to him, he deserves every penny. Will be interesting to see how much further this goes.

Must be a few nervous people around.

I’d be looking to absolutely take people to the cleaners if they’d been effectively publishing unfounded accusations as toxic as that about me.

I hope he ruins people. As they seemed happy to do the same to him. George Monbiot, Alan Davies and Sally Berscow being obvious candidates for that!

And maybe it’ll have the effect of making these Morons think twice before spreading their poisonous gossip as if it were fact! George Monbiot in particular! I can just imagine what he’d have to say on the subject, in some lofty, holier-than-though editorial, if some tabloid hack had done something similar! The hypocritical self-righteous twonk!

IIRC, isn’t he donating most (or all?) of it to a charity?

Children in need apparently.

If he donates it to charity once he’s made his point then it’s fine…

…otherwise it’s turning into a witch-hunt that threatens the basis of freedom of speech IMHO.

I’d rather make 400k over a lifetime of investments than be branded a pedo by the press. TBH

Free speech? WTF!

…otherwise it’s turning into a witch-hunt that threatens the basis of freedom of speech IMHO

The right to put it all over the internet, with not a shred of evidence, that someone sexually abuses children?

In what universe should anyone be defending that? Its got nowt whatsoever to do with freedom of expression, and everything to do with defamation and libel!

In the case of the people mentioned, with tens of thousands of followers, the consequences should be the same if you tweet something like that, to splashing it across the front page of a tabloid!

The current Salam Witch trial culture fuelled by self appointed judge/jury/executioners, needs to be stopped and I really hope Lord McAlpine makes people pay for what was a despicable rumour.

The current Salam Witch trial culture fuelled by self appointed judge/jury/executioners, needs to be stopped and I really hope Lord McAlpine makes people pay for what was a despicable rumour.

+1

Take it easy chaps, calm down and have a biscuit.

While I agree that it’s wrong to falsely label someone without proof, we don’t want to intimidate those who’ve suffered from abuse into silence do we?

PJM1974 – Member

Take it easy chaps, calm down and have a biscuit.

While I agree that it’s wrong to falsely label someone without proof, we don’t want to intimidate those who’ve suffered from abuse into silence do we?

WTF?
That is not what this is about – McAlpine was named, falsely, in the most abhorrant way. It has to do with people spreading malicous and damaging rumours which were totally unfounded. They should all be stiffed for major amounts IMO.

Those people on Twatter and in the media are not the Police or the CPS, leave the accusations to them. It has nothing to do with real victims staying quiet, or there plight being covered up by people in the media like say, Jimmy Savilles’ actions.

That is not what this is about

It isn’t?

Please explain why. Show your working.

Kona_TC + 1

Free speech does not make allowances for what is legally libelous slander (it’s not “speech” it’s “Recording” and “publisihing” – this is the technicality of being a dick on facebook and twitter). It’s also just stupid and wrong.

Lord McAlpine has accepted £125k this morning from ITV, £185k last week form BBC and he hasn’t even started on Twitter people yet #innocentface

Great result so far. IMO the best thing that could happen now would be that everyone (in the UK) who libelled him on Twitter are given the choice between donating £100 to CIN or taken to court.

EDIT:

…otherwise it’s turning into a witch-hunt that threatens the basis of freedom of speech IMHO.

by the way you’ve been watching too much LA Law, there’s no such thing as “freedom of speech” in the UK.

It comes back to the point raised several times before. Why did no-one:

a) Put the allegations to Lord McAlpine to give him the opportunity to answer them
b) Show the victim a photo of Lord McAlpine and ask ‘Is this the man who abused you?’

You don’t need to be a master journalist or legal expert to think that might be a good idea.

I think the Twitter users should pay amounts relative to the number of their followers, i.e. £10 for each follower. It would therefore be in proportion to the amount of people who would have seen the libel.

To be accused without any foundation i the way that Lord McAlpine was must be horrible.

I truly hope, for the benefit of us all in the long run, that he pursues each and every single person who made an accusation or re-tweeted one.

And, really, £100 is simply not enough to make these people think about what they have done – it needs to be thousands, each. It needs to hurt. A lot.

What he chooses to do with the money afterwards is his choice. I believe he is lucky enough to be in a position where giving it away to charity is an option to him.

Rachel

a) Put the allegations to Lord McAlpine to give him the opportunity to answer them
b) Show the victim a photo of Lord McAlpine and ask ‘Is this the man who abused you?’

The fact that it’s an unfounded accusation is beyond doubt.

I happen to think that McAlpine has already made his point and that pursuing people on twitter using fear as a weapon is perhaps not in the best interest…but I’d happily take the point that a donation to Children In Need is a happy outcome.

Clear enough? Good.

I truly hope he gates £100k off Sally Berscow. Bankrupting her would be a national service.

by the way you’ve been watching too much LA Law, there’s no such thing as “freedom of speech” in the UK.

I think there is something in the much maligned human rights act?

[edit] freedom of expression?

franksinatra – Member
I think the Twitter users should pay amounts relative to the number of their followers, i.e. £10 for each follower. It would therefore be in proportion to the amount of people who would have seen the libel.

Nice! I like this. can we make an exception for Sally Bercow, though?

Tarred, feathered and dragged through the town would be a start…

Tarred, feathered and dragged through the town would be a start…

I don’t see why we should go soft on her….

pretty sure i read all retweeters are on the hitlist, I don’t do twitter so will no doubt be missing something but if in the brew room at work I say to my colleagues “I’ve read that mr X has just stated that mr Y did naughty thing Z”, they all go “Oh” and maybe tell other people. That’s gossip. Now if you’re a major publishing house you shouldn’t do tittle tattle gossiping, if you are stephen fry with an oodleplex of followers it’s a grey area and I guess you should be careful. But what about the plebs with 5 followers, are they going to get sued for thousands?

I think there is something in the much maligned human rights act?

[edit] freedom of expression?
correct but there are specific exceptions for defamation, indecency, outraging public decency, etc. There is NO “freedom of speech” in the respect that it is carte blanche to write whatever you like with no repercussions.

Agree with comments about Sally Bercow. Her twitter profile was showing over 20,000 tweets 😯 How does anybody have the time to tweet that much?

He latest is possible contempt of court for naming the schoolgirl who ran off to France (despite everyone knowing who she is and BBC still having the original stories up about her on its website)

I think one rotten tomato thrown at her for every twitter follower would seem in proportion. 😉

D0NK –

But what about the plebs with 5 followers, are they going to get sued for thousands?

yes, hopefully.

If hundreds of people publicly accused you of being a peadophile, what would you like to happen to them?

Fotoflaps, hence “a start…”

🙂

I think one rotten tomato thrown at her for every twitter follower would seem in proportion.

Good thinking. A bit like….

only messier 😀

if you are stephen fry with an oodleplex of followers it’s a grey area and I guess you should be careful. But what about the plebs with 5 followers, are they going to get sued for thousands?

No, it isn’t a grey area at all. There is no legal difference between a libel read by 5 people or 10,000 people except I suppose if the judge decides to award damages based on “damage to reputation” which obviously will be greater in the Stephen Fry case.

Who the **** would follow Sally Bercow on twitter? 😯

Its not just twitter users that they are going after, his lawyer said they were looking at all social media sites like lets say for example discussion forums. I assume no one one here said anything about him before it was shown to be incorrect!.

George Monbiot should be at the front of the firing line.

b) Show the victim a photo of Lord McAlpine and ask ‘Is this the man who abused you?’

If what i read was correct that’s how the accusation started. The accuser was shown a photo and asked ‘is this the man that abused you’ and he said yes. The person showing the photo then said (mistakenly I assume, maybe with malicious intent) that the photo was Lord Macalpine, hence the accuser believed it was.

I could be mis-remembering the details, but I think that’s the opposite of what happened. i.e. the accusations were made (by the media) and then when the chap was eventually shown a photo, he said “no that’s not him” and then everyone else went “oh sh1t”

I could be mis-remembering the details, but I think that’s the opposite of what happened. i.e. the accusations were made (by the media) and then when the chap was eventually shown a photo, he said “no that’s not him” and then everyone else went “oh sh1t”

Yep and even worse, this had all happened before and the police had eliminated Lord McAlpine using the exact same method of showing the victims his photo and they all said ‘not him’.

As much as accusing someone wrongly of being a paedophile is terrible – McAlpine isn’t exactly a tower of moral brilliance is he? Let’s not get all cushy over the man who channeled stolen funds from abroad into the tories big fat pockets and was awarded a peer-ship by his puppeteer thatcher for doing so. He’s just part of an enormous disease in bent politics that has brought this country to it’s knees more than once before.

Before declaring him a saint lets wait to see if it is actually donated to charity.

i think a fine related to the number of twitter followers is an excellent idea

iirc any twitterers who did it are being asked to appologise and donate a fiver to CIN

monbiot and sally bercow on the other hand………

McAlpine isn’t exactly a tower of moral brilliance is he? Let’s not get all cushy over the man who channeled stolen funds from abroad into the tories big fat pockets and was awarded a peer-ship by his puppeteer thatcher for doing so. He’s just part of an enormous disease in bent politics that has brought this country to it’s knees more than once before.

So? This does not in any way, shape or form excuse falsely accusing him of being a child abuser. He can do with the money whatever he pleases (although we’d all like to see it go to CIN).

Wrecker, agreed in full.