tripu

To Anna Mikhailova

With regards to your outing, I strongly condemn the threats you suffered, the harassment and the undoubtedly reprehensible manners. I believe that most bloggers, if asked, would disapprove of that too.

That said, I don’t quite understand what is the problem with your own outing per se.

If three years ago you and your editor judged that it was in the public interest to expose, so prominently, the identity of a thitherto anonymous blogger, then surely you would accept that the public themselves decided that your own outing was relevant news to them, too.

Just explain to us how did your piece of news help society, the public interest or the credibility of blogs.

You do make a point when you say that the anonymity of bloggers should not be “always absolutely guaranteed”. But you forget that that is not the cause that needs to be fought for: in most countries there are already legal means to take down a web site, and to (try to) identify its authors — only that it is judges (and not journalists) who are to decide when there is ground for suspicion of illegal contents or activities, and therefore for a blogger to be “unmasked”. To bring up such a noble argument to justify your attack against a law-abiding adult who simply writes about her own private life only serves to pervert the fight for free speech on the net within the boundaries of legality.