Ill. Appellate Court Orders Paper to Identify Anonymous Blogger

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The Ottawa, Illinois-based Third District Appellate Court ruled 2-1 this week to order The Times to produce information disclosing the identity of an anonymous commenter on its Website so that a couple could pursue a defamation claim against the pseudonymous blogger.

The Third District Appellate Court, whose jurisdiction includes 21 counties in central and northern Illinois, held that bed & breakfast proprietors Donald & Janet Maxon showed sufficient grounds for defamation to peel away any constitutional protections accorded the unnamed blogger to make anonymous comments on the daily newspaper's Website.  That libelous speech is not shielded by the First Amendment is well-established by case law.  The appellate court further noted that the anonymous blogger's comments were couched as fact, not opinion, the latter of the two being a valid defense to defamation.

In 2008, FabFive from Ottawa twice posted comments alleging that the Maxons bribed members of the Ottawa Plan Commission as part of the couple's efforts to change the municipality's bed & breakfast ordinances so that they could expand the number of rooms in their establishment. The Times publisher John Newby declined to identify the screen name account holder without a court order, and the Maxons appealed a circuit court judge's dismissal of their action to the Third District Appellate Court.

A dissenting justice wrote that no reasonable person would construe the anonymous remarks as factual.  Those filing friends of the court brief supporting the preservation of the blogger's anonymity included The Gannett Co., the Hearst Corp., and The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

The Times is owned by the Small Newspaper Group, Inc., and is the product of a 2005 merger of  The (Ottawa) Daily Times and The (Streator) Times-Press.