Online Defamation : There are many cases of websites, blogs, newsgroups being used to criticize or to denigrate companies’ trademark or products.

But what is the difference between a fair comment ( honest opinion ) and defamation?
Honest Opinion requires that the published material is the expression of honest opinion rather that a statement of fact. It has to be based on proper material and has to be able to prove that is an opinion, a judgment, an observation or a deduction from its author, and as such, it is clearly identified as based on a personal experience with the trademark or the product. To be qualified as a fair comment, the reader has to be able to form its own opinion on the fact. The comment has to be clearly distinguishable from the facts upon which it is based.

Any opinion can be harsh, or extreme, as long as it is honestly formed by its author. Any blogger, or author should be very careful in writing any comment about a person, or a trademark, because answering to defamation complaint requires a precise defence which implies a proper an a fair justification. If the author would anser by “I didn’t want to say that”, or “I didn’t mean it”, would make it very difficult to argue a defence based on a “fair comment”.

Before posting a comment or an opinion, be aware to justify what you say by giving the sources your comment is based on, and be prepared to give any evidence that is admissible in court – original documents and/or witnesses who are credible and willing to testify in court. In order to remain credible for your readers, and in order to protect yourself from any defamation complaint, you always have to give the proof that the published material is true.

Hington Klarsey International Ltd is specialized in facing online smear campaigns , while protecting its clients’ corporate image and e-reputation. If you believe you are the target of defamatory articles, posts or comments, Hington Klarsey will help you to protect and to recover your online reputation .

The objective of Internet based Reputation Management is to build and spread goodwill for customers, while ensuring higher rankings & indexing in top search engines for all high priority web assets like corporate websites, product and services blogs, micro-sites…

Top search engine rankings and optimized visibility are essential for good publicity as they aim to push any bad publicity published on the Internet further down the results listings and sometimes, out of public view. Bad buzz or negative information should never be visible on the first page!

Engine Optimization is a key part of web reputation management. It should be continuing, and coupled with effective monitoring and a daily-based analysis of online conversations.

When your web reputation is threat, you can use legal tools in order to remove the harmful messages or articles. But in a fast paced environment like the online community, and in order to stop the bad buzz being spread on the Internet, an efficient online reputation management requires immediate response to capitalize on emerging issues and opportunities.

An efficient web reputation strategy involves legal tools, high level SEO/IT services, public relations, and excellent Internet Community Connections.

One of the most important issue of the Internet, is the authentification of the information source. Most of the bloggers, acting as professional authors on the web, whereas they’re either authors or news analysts, should make the choice to sign their articles with their real names. Instead of using a “no name” nickname, giving their proper name would offer a relative credibility of the information to their readers, and helping to relay the message they want to deliver over the web.