British woman in Cyprus charged over Facebook post

[galexinda]

A 35 year old musician was shocked when she was arrested on Monday in Cyprus for a Facebook comment on a local expats group, branding the local mayor “useless”.

https://detained-in-dubai.prowly.com/13 ... 0pNQlQNGcg

[WHL]

Reading posts over the years, were many have accused people of getting brown envelopes etc etc, I'm just suprised many haven't been sued .

[71 Trans Am]

Well in the early days of this Forum Dominic regularly reminded posters to be very careful what you write and who you aim it at and for good reason - Once you have written it and press submit its often too late to decide to back track - If someone see's it takes offence and decides to prosecute to the fullest extent then that's exactly what will happen - And it is not always the individual who posted the item who could end up in court - The forum provider could also find him or herself in deep water and cannot censor every post that is added - So " lets be careful out there"

[trevnhil]

As I have mentioned before, on the CL forum I was sued in court for something I posted, so yes do be careful.
A restaurant owner took me to court and claimed up to 20,000 euros for loss of earnings due to what I had written..
Neither of us won, but it cost me a little over 1,000 euros for the money paid out in numerous visits to the courthouse with my Lawyer..

[WHL]

I read this on my facebook today, just about sums it up?


I can’t believe that people in this day and age still can’t understand that social media is a public platform. That means whatever you say you must be prepared to defend. If you say something about someone you have to be prepared to back it up. That may mean going to court! Every word written must be considered because freedom of speech and the right to defend ones self works both ways. So unless you’re happy to spend days, hours, weeks months fighting your case and potentially thousands of £’s you have to learn to think before you type! It’s a fact I’m afraid of our lives in the public domain! If she’s right she’ll need to prove it. Proving someone in public office is ‘useless’ will be very difficult to do, regardless of what people may think!

[Dominic]

This is why we don't allow negative reviews. If you want to post something bad about a place, first of all, make sure you have plenty of evidence to hand, then post it on a platform with a decent legal team.

The Paphos Life Legal Team consists of a toy mouse, which constantly gets battered by the kittens, especially Mark. So don't expect any help from that.

[J B]

.................. , I can only think the the reporting misrepresents the facts ! .......................................

Are you suggesting that the press would let the facts get in the way of a good story?

[Jimgym]

Luckily the British Government don't act upon many of the slurs posted on here, otherwise there would be a lot of worried people!

[WHL]

Luckily the British Government don't act upon many of the slurs posted on here, otherwise there would be a lot of worried people!

One mans facts, is another mans slurs?

[Jimgym]

Luckily the British Government don't act upon many of the slurs posted on here, otherwise there would be a lot of worried people!

One mans facts, is another mans slurs?

Yes, and in court it would be up to the one making the slurs to prove them. Not a position I wold particularly wish to be in!

[kansas]

HIC, the main difference here is that Amazon and Trip Advisor actively invite comments.

[Cappielow1]

This seems to be a Cyprus issue; peeps here get easily offended if the family name is considered tarnished. So how do politicians here get away with all the name calling and slurs they cast?

The important thing is to be in a position to back up what you say. 7 out of 10 of my Trip Advisor reviews give glowing 5* reports and are highly complentary. But if a restaurant is rubbish and fails on a number of accounts I will say so. Same on Amazon. What's the point in having a review site if negative comments can't be posted as well as positive.

Same here, however I once left a review on Tripadvisor about a now closed bar, which has reopened in a different location under a new owner, but uses the same name as the one I reviewed.
The review wasn't entirely negative, but did contain negative elements.

The owner emailed me directly ranting about the review and accusing me of trying to ruin her business and atempting to have closed down. She even accused me of being in a bad mood because a certain football team had lost! (The football season had in fact finished two weeks before my visit!) This was despite saying that her food was very good and represented good value! It was other elements of the premises I was negative about.

What I feel people fail to understand is that if you tout your business on the likes of Tripadvisor etc you have to be prepared to take the rough with the smooth and instead of taking people to task over an honest opinion do something about their comments.

All of that said, I do believe that there are a number of people who go around looking for something to complain about or be offended by.

[Yioula]

Has she committed a “civil offence” or “criminal offence”

[Kili01]

It seems too dangerous to express one's opinion here in print. I feel sorry for the lady we are referring to.( Hope thats not indictable).
Does anyone here read Tales from the Coffeeshop, in Sunday's Mail? The author of that says some fairly outrageous things. But he never actually names the person concerned, though he makes it fairly easy to surmise.
Dee

[bmwx5]

Tales from the coffee shop reminds me in someways of Private Eye although he does name Prez Nick he leaves other people for you to assume who they are Very good article in today's edition who governs Cyprus the Governmentor the Church ? The answer is in his article

[Jimgym]

To add to this story, the organisation Justice Abroad is now involved. https://www.justiceabroad.co.uk/news/ju ... K7KVmVLMwM

[Kili01]

Are they a new organisation? As haven't heard of them previously, but it seems that there is a need for them. Cyprus justice can appear to be peremptory where a case concerns a woman.
Remember the case of the British teenager on holiday in Agia Napa nearly two years ago? Her complaint was that she had been raped or even gang raped.
This is a different case, but once again it concerns another woman who raised her head above the paraphet.
Dee

[WHL]

Justice Abroad are well known, Dee.

When I first read this story I didn't think it had a cat in hell's chance of standing up if brought before EU Courts.

There is such a thing as free speech and we are all entitled to our views. And we all express them daily. Suppression of views is what communism is all about. Just look at what people like Jeremy Clarkson and any number of journalists write daily. There is a fine line though between having and expressing a view and libel.

A quick search brings up: to prove prima facie defamation, a plaintiff must show four things: 1) a false statement purporting to be fact; 2) publication or communication of that statement to a third person; 3) fault amounting to at least negligence; and 4) damages, or some harm caused to the person or entity who is the subject of the statement.

HIC, I agree with you re free speech, what we dont know is, has this lady made previous posts about this mayor, and maybe this was the final straw?
another thing , a few on here should thank their lucky stars, local police and politicians, dont read this forum,
especially some who have posted on many occasions on how corrupt the police are, and have said on many occasions about mayors getting brown envelopes from local business people/ developers etc etc according to them everyone and his dog are taking bungs, they have been very lucky no one has grassed them up..... or we will definitely be reading about them in the local press......... It didn't take long to bring the red herring of the lady ( who was found guilty of lying ) into the argument

[Kili01]

Yes, both of you are making good points. The issue of free speech is a problem here in an EU country surely this should be enshrined?
Also freedom of movement is another issue.. I've read a lot in the local press about this recently.

Dee

[WHL]

Yes, both of you are making good points. The issue of free speech is a problem here in an EU country surely this should be enshrined?
Also freedom of movement is another issue.. I've read a lot in the local press about this recently.

Dee

There is absolutely no problem regards, free speech here in Cyprus, I really don't understand why your saying this, reading your posting history, a lot of your posts criticise politicians, police, etc etc etc etc etc etc ? I haven't seen you being carted off to the local police station.