A Disturbing Trend....

Apparently, more and more professionals are getting sacked, or at least getting censured or reprimanded for blogging. What happened to Mark Jen (former Google employee, probably the most famous example of an employee being fired allegedly for blogging - read my earlier post here), doesn't seem to be an isolated incident, as more and more instances seem to be cropping up from all over, particularly in well known organizations.

My take on the issue is simple. If your employer has a specific policy against blogging, it would be wise for you to follow it. However, if your employer doesn't, being arbitrarily fired without so much as a warning or an opportunity to air your side doesn't seem to be legal to me, whether here from where I am, or even in the United States. Take a look at these provisions:

United States Constitution

Amendment I - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression. Ratified 12/15/1791

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Philippine Constitution

Article III - Bill of Rights, Section 4

Section 4. No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances.

I'm wondering a bit to myself why lawsuits haven't been filed (or have they?) considering that the United States is a place where you can sue McDonald's for serving coffee that is too hot. Yeah, I know it's not the same thing, but still...

I have this feeling that lawsuits involving blogs would start mushrooming all over the place sooner or later. I'm not just talking suits involving bloggers and employers. Soon there may be suits involving bloggers against fellow bloggers, bloggers against third parties, bloggers against commenters, commenters against commenters, commenters against employers, commenters against third parties...what a tangled web we weave. Oh well, I guess it would be a field day for the lawyers. Who knows? Before you know it we may even have blogger lawsuit insurance. :-)

Well, for whatever it's worth, we should blog responsibly. Whatever that means. Perhaps we should start a movement? Or is there one already? :-)

Links:

Blogging May Cost You Your Job
Blogger fired by Bastardstones
Blogging can win you a pink slip

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Commonwealth Ave. lot for Lease

Image
For lease, 261 sqm commercial lot near east-bound lane (going to Fairview) of Commonwealth Ave. Quezon City, between Tandang Sora and Ever Gotesco, directly opposite PNB . Accessible via 50m access road. No improvements on said property. For inquiries call 09228692272 or email ronallandottk@yahoo.com
Read more

Is aspartame safe?

Image
Do you know what aspartame is? Well, even if you don't, given its ubiquitous nature, its a virtual certainty that you have already crossed paths with it in your life at one time or another. For the uninitiated, aspartame is a low-calorie sugar substitute most often used in carbonated beverages, you know, the diet or lite variety. Here in the Philippines, it is commonly known by the brand names NutraSweet and Equal . The reason why it has significantly fewer calories is because its not carbohydrate based. Its a methyl (methane derivative) ester (organic compound) dipeptide (two amino acids joined by a single peptide bond) consisting of aspartic acid as the first amino acid, and phenylalanine as the second. Its about 180 times sweeter than typical table sugar, and as such, a little goes a long way. A single pellet of Equal (18 mg of aspartame) has about the same sweetening strength as a teaspoon of ordinary white sugar (about 5 ml). Do the math. It was first discovered in 19...
Read more

Peddling Snake Oil - The Khaos Super Turbo Charger

Image
Photos courtesy of Ghosthunter If you drive or are at least into cars, no doubt you've probably heard at one time or another about the Khaos Super Turbo Charger . It's a device that is claimed to drastically reduce the fuel consumption of your gasoline driven vehicle by as much as 50%. It created such a hype when it was introduced in November 2003 after glowing reviews and endorsements from, among others, the Department of Energy (DOE), the Makati Land Transportation Office (LTO) and Taiwan’s Automotive Research and Testing Center. Even Malacañang got into the picture, and presented the inventor, Pablo Planas, with a Presidential Award Medal for Outstanding Invention. All in all, various government agencies and government officials got into the picture, singing the praises of a device that miraculously reduces fuel consumption by a significant margin. As a result, in less than a year, more than 3,500 units were sold and installed to customers who swear by the product's effe...
Read more