Sssssh.............I have just grown a large moustache............. (........well, not just grown, but over a period of a week or so.....)
Of course there isn't a ban on saying that a person has been arrested, if they have been and it is public knowledge. Just like there isn't a ban on saying somebody has been charged, or is on trial, if that is so. There is no ban on saying that the police or prosecutors are making certain allegations against a person, if they are. At risk of repeating the bleedin' obvious, what is banned is presuming the guilt of someone who is entitled to the presumption of innocence.
Presumption and opinion are different... We can all presume what we like, but perhaps not give opinion, and surely that means either way...?
By "presuming the guilt..." I obviously mean "publishing a statement which implicitly presumes the guilt...". If you make a presumption inside your own head but don't publish anything about it, nobody knows or cares. Obviously.
presumption - belief - opinion, not all the same. Opinion should be based on considering the options, where as presumption would imply less deliberation... So if we refrain from giving presumptions, can we instead give considered opinions?
If a person gets arrested does that not then become public knowledge whether anyone actually knows or not?do the police serve the people or the state?
"I think it is absolutely disgusting that Gerry Adams may have committed murder." Said his rapist, paedophile brother. Courtesy of Sickipedia.org:Is This THE Hottest Murder Joke?! - Sickipedia.org
As I understand it........... Libel (Written) Slander (Spoken).......either way it is classed as Defaming someone; however..... You cannot defame a dead person. You cannot be sued for possible defamatory comments if you direct them to the person in question and nobody else. You cannot be sued for possible defamatory comments if the person in question shows them to somebody else. You cannot be sued for possible defamatory comments if in fact they are true. You cannot be sued for possible defamatory comments if you have heard them from somebody else, but you say 'it appears that......' or 'it seems that..........'; you are after all entitled to an opinion. However you can be sued if you emphatically make a defamatory comment to various persons about one person, knowing it to be untrue or unproven. That includes in public, in writing or on a public forum. But.....and Pete will confirm this..........You cannot be sued for a possible defamatory comment you make in a Court Hearing.
My considered opinion: PSNI wouldn't hold him without good reason. J### M#######'s Daughter wouldn't state that she will take civil action against him if PSNI do not, without good reason...
iv grown a beard again. it does bother me about this northern Ireland thing. not a friendlier bunch of people you could meet blighted by this shit. watching salmond last night give a presentation in Europe he mentioned not one person hurt let alone killed in the persute of Scottish independence in last 100 years.
