Michael Atkinson Clamps Down on Defamatory Comments (especially if they're directed at him)

[benylor]

Atkinson, sir:

You are a politician in a democracy. Democracy can only exist in a state of free flow of information. Anything is up for debate, whether it'll reach the statue books or not. That's the thing with a democracy, everybody is entitled to express whatever opinion they like.

In suppressing this, you have removed any doubt in my mind that you, sir, are a crook. Indeed, I might have stopped there before this, but in light of this I now also lay upon you that you are a liar, self-obsessed, a tyrant, and, above all, completely morally bankrupt. I hope you fail to keep your seat, and fail at everything else you ever attempt.

To put it in coarser terms, you just took a shit on free speech. I don't believe that you'll ever truly learn or care what a hideous thing you have done here. I'm sure you won't even try.

Lose your seat, and crawl back to your home to stew in your defeat, cur. An enemy of free speech is an enemy of humanity.

 

[pwnzerstick]

Hes a crooked crook with a crooked ****.

 

[PrimoThePro]

*Switching to Slender Man voice*
I WILL DEVOUR YOUR SOUL!!!!!I WILL SLAUGHTER ANY WHO GOES IN MY WAY!!!!
*ahem* What the hell! Mr Atkinson! Next thing you'll say is were more dangerous than BIkers!! [sub]oh........[/sub]

HAH! Bah-Zing!
seriously though, this guy is a total doucher. seemed very hypocritical. and it totally defeats free speech ideas.

 

[jack_hectic]

Edit:
I don't support Atkinson in any way, I'm just pointing out the law here.
/ Edit

Wait ... someone got fined because they expressed their opinion that Michael Atkinson was a crook? Right after he said freedom of speech wouldn't be impinged? So what, free speech is now 'You can say whatever you want as long as I want you to say it'?

There's a slight bit of hypocrisy going on there but defamation > free speech in the courts. You can't just say whatever you want about someone and expect free speech to protect you, not even on the internet. Taken from wikipedia because the definition is pretty good:

Defamation - also called calumny, vilification, slander (for transitory statements), and libel (for written, broadcast, or otherwise published words) - is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government, or nation a negative image. It is usually, but not always, a requirement that this claim be false and that the publication is communicated to someone other than the person defamed (the claimant).

To prove defamation all Atkinson needs to do is prove he isn't a crook and that his image has been damaged by the claim. I'm fairly sure he doesn't have a criminal record and isn't being investigated for any criminal dealings. While I don't agree with his views or his politics, he's clean as a whistle as far as the law is concerned. Also, defamation cases are extremely messy and expensive. Not only can he not afford a lawyer, if this guy was to fight it he would most likely lose and the amount he would be ordered to pay would be far higher than $20,000.

but thats fucking bullshit, speaking frankly. we all are upset with our politicians, and its not like him calling atkinson a crook will lose him that many votes. really, everyone thinks politicians are crooks, and the ones you dont think are crooks are the ones that youll be stubborn on - no amount of vague namecalling (im assuming that he wasnt giving great arguments when he called him a crook, just like everything on the internet) is going to make me think that Russ Feingold shouldnt have run for the US presidency. NONE. you can call him a pansy, a pothead, a tree hugger all you want, but i will still think the same.

call Russ Feingold a crook. go ahead. goes in one ear and out the other. its the same thing here -

the people who already think Atkinson is a crook (i.e., ME and everywhere in australia except SA) will agree with the name-caller, and the people who think Atkinson is the Second Coming will simply scoff this off. why on earth did Atkinson think he needed $20,000 to make people agree with him again? if anything, if he wanted votes, he should have done the much more mature "yes, well, i heard about that claim that im a crook. he didnt back it up, and i think time will show the lot of you the truth. peace, bitches." and so on.

making a huge deal out of being called a crook doesnt make him look mature, it makes him look weak and oversensative personally. and demanding $20,000 dollars just seals his crooked nature.

michael atkinson, whether he was before he cried or not, is a crook, NOW.

 

[Gestapo Hunter]

Well i wont call him a crook,but i got another "C" word to call him by. Ill give you a hint:its what i call my ex when shes being a *****.

 

[chavron]

Someone "falsely" accused Atkinson of a scandal that happened years ago.
Just as those accuse him of defaming, yet it's those that defame him.

My son is 28 years old. He plays games that have an M rating. Yet the game really should have an R rating. I was told by him that there is no way a 15 year old should be playing this game.

How many parent's care what games you are playing ???

Are you adults enough to know that violence at a young age can ruin your wiring and give you bad personality traits. ?
Sorry but you youngers believe you know much more than we do.

Atkinson doesn't want an R rating applied to these games, but he should.
We would then know that 15 to 18 year olds shouldn't be playing them.

 

[Kinguendo]

Everyone, call him a crook, now! He can't fine all of us and it can only harm his public image.

Atkinson is a crook! And a poopy head. And he likes to wear ladies underpants.

I heard all of that too... must be true... AND I heard he makes his Ladies underpants out of baby seals and that he breeds his own endangered animals just so that when they die out he can film himself eating the last of their kind... like he did with the Dodo... I heard he personally lead the expedition to kill the Dodo first too.

And he smells of various melted cheeses.

Ooooh burn.

He should totally be fired, he is leading a witch hunt against gamers.

 

[Kinguendo]

Someone "falsely" accused Atkinson of a scandal that happened years ago.
Just as those accuse him of defaming, yet it's those that defame him.

My son is 28 years old. He plays games that have an M rating. Yet the game really should have an R rating. I was told by him that there is no way a 15 year old should be playing this game.

How many parent's care what games you are playing ???

Are you adults enough to know that violence at a young age can ruin your wiring and give you bad personality traits. ?
Sorry but you youngers believe you know much more than we do.

Atkinson doesn't want an R rating applied to these games, but he should.
We would then know that 15 to 18 year olds shouldn't be playing them.

You are aware that we, as a group, support the rating system right?

If someone wants to blame gaming for a childs bad behaviour then you have to look at the parents... Its bad parenting to let a child play an unsuitable game... Its not our fault that parents blame games before accepting responsibility for their children.

Watching the news is more gruesome than most computer games.

 

[GreyWolf257]

I'm really not surprised. This guy is doing so much stupid shit that just hearing his name bores me.

 

[Eliam_Dar]

I am glad we do not have politicians like him over here (yet), we have awful politicians but at least they let us say whatever we want.

 

[KurtzGallahad]

WHenever I hear that name I feel like re-enacting the scene from which [user]Sassafras}[/user] gets his avatar

(Would post gif but I am to much of an html noob

 

[shotgunbob]

Everyone, call him a crook, now! He can't fine all of us and it can only harm his public image.

Atkinson is a crook! And a poopy head. And he likes to wear ladies underpants.

Something tells me he would take offence to that......

I think I could stare at your Gary Busey picture for days

 

[chavron]

. Its bad parenting to let a child play an unsuitable game.


I agree. Yet some of these games should have an R rating not an M rating.
As good parents if these games were rated R then we wouldn't be allowing our young children to play them.
Overseas these games that have an M rating here are given an R rating overseas, but bits are taken out to make them M, yet according to my son, these games still are far too violent for a 15 year old. So yes i disagree with Mr. Atkinson who is not allowing these games to be given an R rating.

 

[Convictfish]

Michael Atkinson is Satan. How Satan got to be the Attorney-General of SA, I'll never know, probably something in the water.

 

[tkioz]

The guys scum, we all agree on that, but personally I'd love the bastard to try and sue me, I'm poor, and I'm partly crippled, I'm the guy current affairs programs in this country love.

Dear Mr. Atkinson, you can find my real name, and my email address in my profile on this site, I an hear-by calling you a crook and a blight on democracy in this nation, I contend that not only are you a horrible representative of our nation, of your state, but a horrible person as well.

Now, sue me, I dare you you SOB, come-on, bring it, I've got nothing to lose, and your house to gain.

If anyone wants to see the media watch segment on this, try here http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s2833558.htm that show is one of the best in the country, always giving it to the scummy underbelly.

 

[Quaxar]

Now I really want to send him a link to 4chan... he'd freak out and go cry in a corner until the next elections.

tkinson is a crook! And a poopy head. And he likes to wear ladies underpants

...on his head while dancing to I killed the prom queen and smearing kangaroo blood on computer games. Crooks do that, right?

 

[Spiner909]

He is a tyrant now. What a jerk.

 

[Tartarga]

Micheal Atkinson is the biggest crook in the world. He must be stopped before all that is good in this world is ruined by his crookyness or whatever.

 

[jack_hectic]

Incidentally, Atkinson went on record recently about his breathtakingly stubborn position, stating that most people don't want the R18 rating and that the people who do are just a vocal minority. Okay, then. So I guess since we're such a small number he'll have absolutely no objection to me, say, posting his email address(croydon@parliament.sa.gov.au)

im gonna re-email that crook...