THE POWER OF BLOGS

The Lost Boy (www.whatismatt.com) has written today about the case of a Filipino girl called Iris who moved to Bangkok in June to start work as a teacher. She has written about her experiences in two personal blogs, albeit in a rather indelicate way, but those blogs have come to the attention of her employers and she has now been fired.
This just goes to show the power of blogs, and the fact that you have to understand that blogging is just another form of publishing and is subject to the same laws of libel and defamation as any other form of publishing. Never say anything you cannot justify or would be prepared to say in court if it went that far.
Iris might have a claim for unfair dismissal if her contract did not preclude writing a personal blog. Thai employment law is very much geared to favour the employee, but I wonder what would happen and how I would react if one of my staff wrote something negative or something I did not agree with on their personal blog. Or how would they react if I did the same?
You can read about Iris' version of event at http://irisisonfire.wordpress.com/2007/07/23/iris-umm-fired/#comment-265