It might be nice to be able to say that the introduction of the blog as a universal communication tool had liberated people to fully (and anonymously) express themselves to the masses. It might also be nice to say that the concept had allowed people a freedom of speech in cyberspace that their own country's laws forbade at home.

Both statements would be erroneous.

Since the first erect hominid accidentally scratched some recognisably legible marks on a rock wall and rubbed charcoal and ochre into them, Man has been leaving messages for others to read and hopefully understand - the original graffiti artist. The advent of cyberspace as an everyday activity for anyone who wishes has not changed the fact that, whilst you may publish your thoughts on a server situated in Timbuktoo, the connection you used to get it there is located in your home. And it's the connection that ties you to the words you publish, as David Farrar explained on TV.

Which is a bit of a bugger for those who ignored the name suppression orders and went ahead providing images and text from The Pamphlet yesterday. Cos now some of them might well be in the crap, like the woman in the post below whose pseudonym I mentioned and very deliberately did not link to.

Even message boards are being targetted by those who might well have a nice, shiny axe to grind when the round-up of lawbreakers starts, hence this posted on the Trade Me announcements page today:

Site Announcements
4 April - Suppression Orders
If you haven't picked up on it yet, we have been asked to remove postings which violate the suppression orders relating to the Louise Nicholas case. The courts and the police have asked us to remove and archive any threads containing potential breaches. To save us a lot of time, and yourself a lot of potential hassle we ask that you quit posting suppressed information on Trade Me.

Members posting messages on this topic may have their message board privileges permanently suspended.

Suspension of message board posting privileges might be the least of their worries...

The multitudes of incriminating messages posted and then removed there today would suggest that those doing the watching are not shagging about on this one.

Freedom of speech is a very subjective thing, isn't it? What is right depends entirely on which side of the fence you're on.

In the mean time, my blog had a very busy day.