Dr Mark Pearson, will present at next week's Social Media for the Public Sector Conference 2012 in Melbourne. Dr Pearson is a journalist, author and professor of journalism at Bond University. He holds a PhD examining Internet journalism and a Master of Laws with a focus on media law. Professor Pearson is Australian correspondent for Reporters Without Borders and has been published in the Wall Street Journal, the Far Eastern Economic Review and The Australian newspapers. He blogs from journlaw.com, tweets from @journlaw, and his Facebook page is ‘Journ Law’. He is the co-author (with Mark Polden) of The Journalist’s Guide to Media Law (4th edition, Allen & Unwin, 2011) and the author of Blogging and Tweeting Without Getting Sued, due to be published by Allen & Unwin in April, 2012.
Dr Pearson will discuss the Legal Pitfalls for Social Media Editors-
Every Facebook wall or Twitter handle raises an array of legal issues for the public sector social media editor. Defamation, contempt of court, copyright and privacy breaches are just some of the legal traps facing public servants as they take on the new role of ‘publisher’ in the Web 2.0 environment. This presentation uses Australian and international examples from recent cases to illustrate some of the basic legal principles applying to social media writing, editing and hosting.