Notes from the Cape

A blogger is being sued for defamation by the RCI-affiliated Quality Vacation Club (QVC) for criticising it on his website Insights and Rants.

This is of huge interest to be, because I often write about good and bad service in my Orchids and Onions section of my blog site. Personally, I feel that if you don’t open your business to public scrutiny and comment, you should question your business practises and integrity very closely.

According to Independent Online,

Donn Edwards was phoned by a telemarketer last year and told that he had won a car. All he would have to do to claim his prize, he was told, was attend a prize-giving ceremony in Midrand, north of Johannesburg.

When he and his wife arrived at the venue, they discovered that the prize-giving ceremony was a QVC marketing presentation at which he and his wife, and the other “guests”, were told to choose a key, after the airing of a video, to determine if he had won the car. He had not.

Edwards wrote about his experience, and his unhappiness about being misled, on his blog.The result of this is that QCV are suing him for damages of R461 500.

Pamela Stein, a partner at legal firm Webber Wentzel Bowens, said the blogger would be able to defend his actions on the basis of fair comment.

“The right of fair comment, along with truth for the public benefit, is one of the fundamental rights of free speech,”

“I have no doubt that commentary that is in the consumer’s interests is in the public interest.”

It will be a very sad day if RCI win this court case. Freedom of expression, and the right to tell the truth are fundamental rights. If RCI are concerned about Donn’s views, they have every right to respond, to comment and to tell their side of the story. However, in my opinion, a large organisation suing a single person that is unhappy is not the approach to follow.

The full artice is on IOL.

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