[Schmickers]

Rafida, unfortunately, it is not that simple.

People in defamation lawsuits have a legal redress to attack the forums themselves, rather than you, because we provide the facility to broadcast your negative opinion to the wider community. In fact, the law around this is a grey area at the moment. A large Australian web forum about computers and IT recently won a court case against a software manufacturer that tried to sue them for defamation on the same grounds - the forum succesfully argued the case you are making, that it was not their responsiblity to police the comments of their members. But they had access to a legal team and funding to fight such a battle, and we do not.

I should emphasise that I am saying this next part as myself, not as a moderator. I completely agree with you. It rankles me to no end that we are able to post positive reviews of obstetricians and midwives on this forum and not negative ones, and I too think it often misrepresents the truth. I also think that women deserve the right to be able to speak out about poor care, and I think what we do here is censorship of the worst possible order. But unfortunately, it is also required of us by law.

One point you can keep in mind is that defamation only applies to information posted publically. This forum has a private messaging system, which you will be able to access when you reach a certain post count. I would encourage you to use this system to contact a poster directly if they have asked about feedback and your feedback is negative.

I hope this helps address your concerns.