The UK High Court recently held that a claimant, who was criticized in the comments section of his own blog, cannot sue for defamation, since he could have deleted the comment but failed to do so.
The case Carrie v. Tolkien [2009] EWHC 29 (QB) (15 Jan. 2009) relates to allegations of sexual abuse by Father Tolkein, the son of the famous author.
The court pointed out that the plaintiff could have removed the offending comments posted on his own blog, which he saw four and a half hours after they first appeared but did not do so, and dismissed claims for defamation damages.
The plaintiff Carrie, is the author of a self-published book in which he claimed to have been sexually abused by Father John Tolkien, the son of writer JRR Tolkien. Carrie created a blog in 2007 and published a post under a pseudonym promoting his Web site and his book. Consequently JRR Tolkien’s great grandson, Royd Tolkien, posted a comment on the site claiming that Carrie was a fraud who was attempting to victimize the Tolkien family. Carrie wrote a denial of the comments but did not remove them.
