When the threat of Libel chill just isn't enough

There's an interesting story on blogging coming out of New Brunswick today, a Conservative blogger in Toronto, Steve Janke,who writes on the blog Angry in the Great White North recounts the tale of Charles Leblanc.

Leblanc is a blogger who has become a bit of a pain in the backside to the local political class of St. John, appearing at protests and such and who writes about poverty and politics on his website.

In June of this year, he was arrested for obstruction of justice, after taking pictures of a St. John protest for his blogsite. In the subsequent court case, the charges were thrown out as the Judge ruled that Leblanc was merely plying his trade. Making it perhaps the first time that blogging has been referred to as an occupation as opposed to a hobby.

Of interest in this instance was the reasoning of the arresting officer at the time, who testified that Leblanc was arrested because he "was scruffy looking and carried an unprofessional looking digital camera", which is perhaps a standard that the Bush administration might have wished to have used with Michael Moore.

Regardless, if Leblanc's arrest was just an evening of scores by the officials, then it was an obvious overstepping of the bounds of law enforcement and was rightly struck down by the judge. But it does serve as a warning to the hundreds of thousands of bloggers out there, that this form of media is very much in its infancy and subject to whims it seems as opposed to any form of standard behaviour.

It sets up a cautionary tone for those that do blog, that the rules are rather vague and danger perhaps lurks with every post. Which in effect could send a chill over the blogosphere that could very well change the dynamic of what we write and what we read.

On the positive side, the case is a minor step towards respectability for the volume of bloggers pounding away on the keys day after day. The mediaas we know it, can be much more than the mainstream version of which we have become used to. It comes in many forms some good, some bad (just like the big boys and girls) but the common thread seems to be that accountability needs to be practiced with zeal.

It sometimes is a fine line between respectable opinion and irresponsible speculation, it will be of interest to see how society comes to grips with the delivery of information from a system with little in the way of rules and guidelines other than common sense.