personal online diary not allowed?

well, i am referring to a blog or website as an online diary when we write personal stuff. why, this blog of mine can be known as online diary too since i do write on personal matters.

what i’m going to bring up is this case of a possibility of a third blogger getting sued – got the wind from rocky bru’s post several  days ago and susan loone blog about it 2 days ago.

i’m talking about tony yew who dropped a comment in my post ‘kiss and ride‘. you see, tony started a blog ‘open discrimination by MAS‘ to write about the termination of service of his wife from malaysian airline system (MAS).

as susan pointed out, the industrial court had order tony to stop blogging on his wife’s predicament after her termination from MAS.

yew’s wife, audra was asked to resign within 24 hours in 2003 when she was pregnant with her third child. when she did not, the management terminated her service.

in an email interview with this blog, yew said his blog told the story of his wife and others who had suffered similiar fate. audra’s case which was to be heard on feb. 21st is not postponed indefinitely.

now i wonder what’s so wrong with that? if tony wants to write about his wife (and others) experience from MAS, it is personal… it is just like him writing a diary of the account of his wife’s experience… a diary that he shared with all those on the net. are we not allowed to write personal stuffs on the net…. especially like in tony’s case of course, when it involved a third party… well some people would say ‘bad-mouthing’ a third party.

 in tony’s case, this third party is corporate giant MAS. i guess it was MAS who wanted tony to stop blogging about them. why? if they had not done anything wrong, why scared of what tony had been telling the w.w.w.? tony’s view is his own personal view, so don’t tell me we are not allowed to write our own personal view?

you know, that day when my letter regarding penang’s bus system to malaysiakini was published, i suddenly had a thought. (note: it was published in the star paper yesterday).  i mentioned about lots of bad experiences taking the bus to and fro and in that letter only highlighted one experience. so i was thinking maybe i can take after what tony did – start a blog to write about my bad experiences and invited others who had bad experiences to write in too. (or i highlighted their bad experiences).  of course i will mention the bus companies name and the buses’ registration plate. well… now looking at tony’s case, that he had been ordered to stop blogging, i wonder if i do start the blog, will then the bus companies get upset, just like MAS did, and have the court to order me to stop blogging?

yes they can do that but don’t you think it is wrong? it’s my online diary of my account of my experiences with the bus, something personal, which i want to share with others. i should be allowed to write what i want to write as long as what i write is not defamatory.

if MAS managed to get tony to stop writing about them, i fear this might set a precedent. what if someone wants to write about the bad services from banks? the banks that s/he mentioned will not allow her/him to write? what if someone writes about the bad service/experience s/he had in a hypermarket… will this hypermarket get a court order to stop her/him from writing further? we can’t write our own personal experiences anymore?