Hummingbirds Sat 03-Nov-12 13:20:49
Claig, why should the link be removed? It is the site of a man whose entire life was ruined by being sexually abused in a 'care' home. After a life of crime, he now champions the rights of prisoners. Perhaps he has knowledge from the victims themselves. Why silence him?
Its not about silencing him. If he wants to put that on the internet that for him to do and accept the consequences. But Mumsnet haven't made that decision, that they think its acceptable to do, and that does create a problem for them in terms of the law as they are 'mainstream'. What we are talking about in terms of difference is how it affects the general public and justice in general.
The trouble with publishing all these names widely without evidence, is that any conviction is potentially 'unsafe' because its pretty reasonable to be able to argue that the offender didn't get a fair trial.
If you think about who we are talking about trying to pin; officials with money, influence and intelligence then they are likely to use every trick in the book including that one.
Would it be justice for the victims if, after all this, someone was found guilty only to walk free on technicalities?
Just because we have lost our faith in the institutions which are supposed to just fair justice, doesn't mean we should abandon the principles upon which they were founded and resort to mob justice. It means we have to rebuild these institutions and the faith we have them instead and to do that, it is essential that those principles are applied to everyone unlike in the past.
The problem started in this particular case when the men involved were protected from media coverage during the tribunal which was against what would normally happen. Unfortunately since that decision was made, their names coming up now do so without proper evidence about why their names were mentioned in the first place. So now we have a situation where putting their names out there in this way jeopardises justice, and means because we have no official account that the wrong names could be being thrown around.
I do think the internet has the power to apply pressure and force this to go to through legal challenges. It doesn't necessarily mean we need to witchhunt at every opportunity though, and any media outlet with power and influence of the same nature as Mumsnet has a duty not to encourage that too much. There are plenty of news articles and blogs out there which are can be used to argue the case about this and push the agenda and force the changes we need thanks to the exposure of Jimmy Savile and the house of cards starting to fall.
What we need now at this stage is, an official reopening of the enquiry and an official release of the names of the people concerned so that the press can pick apart things properly and that such injunctions are not allowed to be used again in this way as they are not in the public interest, not in the interest of the victims and not actually in the interests of the accused either if 15 years down the line things are going to come out in drips without proper evidence behind them.
The rot has to stop at this point, and that doesn't happen by having a few lynchings. Public executions after the process of law has to prevail for justice to be served.