Continuous The Forum Court (Tirin v. Thunder: Concluded)

Easy

Right Honorable Justice
Member
ORDER. All persons not directly involved in the trial process are asked to remain silent until otherwise called.

@Tirin, @Rondait

Defense and Prosecution may now present opening statements. Each side, having done so, may then proceed to: call witnesses, present arguments, and/or submit any evidence for or against the charges, or any briefs and statements quoted from an outside party, for or against the charges presented. (Any witnesses thus called are asked to refrain from giving testimony or presenting evidence until the Oath can be administered or refused.)

This trial will proceed until exactly one week has elapsed, or both sides have presented closing statements - whichever is shorter.

Proceed.
 

Tirin

God-Emperor of Tealkind
Moderator
Your Honor, good members of the jury - most of you know Rondait as an upstanding forumer. He does right by people, puts in an effort, and damn it if he hasn't done a great job on the Mach Times (generally, that is). However, this document published in this thread is a case of the accused exceeding his grasp, and abusing his so-called "freedom of the press" in an attempt to blacken my good name. He has callously overlooked the truth of an incredibly serious matter (and accepted the submission of an outright falsehood) with regard to the allegations that have been made against me, and printed them in spite of obvious flaws, whether for political or personal gain; for that reason, he is charged with the printing of libel and reckless disregard for the truth, as well as one count of "being his father's son" if the Court would permit it.
 

Rondait

Well-Known Member
Member
Your Honor, ladies and gentleman of the jury - I would first like to go on record as saying that in no way will the plaintiff's accusations against me change the journalistic integrity of the Mach Times or 103.3 The Mach. We will continue to report on Tirin and the election as a whole in a neutral manner. Any direct mentions of the court case in the media will also be from a factual standpoint. Next, as I am representing both myself and the Mach Times, I will be using "I" and "we" interchangeably. Unless otherwise noted, please consider "we" and "I" to mean myself, and by extension the Mach Times.

Now, I believe the claim that the document published in the thread is a case of me abusing the freedom of the press in an apparent attempt to "blacken my [Tirin's] good name" is, to put it politely, rubbish. As the Mach Times reported, an anonymous source sent the Mach Times a document with information claiming that the bomb threat was a false flag to make Tirin look good. As stated in the same article, we were unable to verify the claims, but felt that it was in the best interest of the public to publish the same information we were given with no edits. We didn't claim the information to be true, and specifically noted this in the article. As such, the claim that we have a reckless disregard for the truth seems rather silly.

Finally, I would ask the court to not permit "being his father's son" becoming a chargeable offense, as, if that were illegal, I'd be charged with that every day. I would also like to ask the court, and the plaintiff, what exactly I am being charged with. Is it indeed "Malicious Bamboozlement" as stated by the court, or is it "libel and reckless disregard for the truth" as stated by the plaintiff? I'd assume the legal definitions of each would be different, so for the benefit of all involved in the case, it would be nice to know what exactly the charges are.
 

Easy

Right Honorable Justice
Member
Duly noted. Defendant is informed that charges of Malicious Bamboozling were proclaimed erroneously. The record has been corrected to properly read "Reckless Disregard For The Truth," as previously intended, while acknowledging the initial error.
 

Tirin

God-Emperor of Tealkind
Moderator
Rondait's disregard for the truth is, without any doubt whatsoever, reckless and substantial. While he did not claim that the information in said article was necessarily true, the fact that he printed it at all speaks to his assumption that it had some relevance to the mayoral election.

What he does not acknowledge, however, is that printing it to begin with is reckless disregard for the truth, so defined as "disregard of the truth or falsity of a defamatory statement by a person who is highly aware of its probable falsity or entertains serious doubts about its truth or when there are obvious reasons to doubt the veracity and accuracy of a source". Such statements are not constitutionally protected in many, if any, jurisdictions - nor should they be here. Libel, similarly, requires merely that a statement be published, false, and defamatory - all of which are hit in the context of Rondait's article, wherein Vance's bomb threat on the forum is alleged to "[have been] a false flag by Tirin to give himself like... A problem to deal with... To drum up his campaign", and furthermore I am suggested to be "some ignorant redneck newfie" despite the fact that the person speaking with Walrus Man is clearly unaware that the peso is not only a Mexican currency, but also that of the Philippines, Cuba, and several other countries.

The latter statement is rude, but ultimately impossible to prove false without showing pictures of my neck (which is very much not red) or demonstrating that I am not nebulously ignorant. The former, however, is a stain on my mayoral campaign and reputation - and Rondait printed it while having every reason to doubt its veracity. That allegation fails to take into account the objective and eminent facts that:

1) Vance's bomb threat against Mach Entertainment was made on March 3rd.

2) The first post of our 2018 mayoral election was made by Dunsparce, in response to controversy engendered (pardon the pun) in his International Womyn's Day thread, wherein one of his posts' content was removed. That post was made six days later, on March 9th - after even my last post in the Mach Entertainment Situation Room where I, as mayor, was asked to help resolve the situation.

3) I did not initiate our election, and indeed could not have been aware of it beforehand owing to, to quote Rondait himself in Election Radio News 1, "[my] reign [having been] challenged which, due to rules that no one truly understands, has caused a special election". Indeed - if any such "plan" had been in the works, most likely my reign would not have been challenged at all, and we would not be having such an election.

Between these three pieces of evidence, it is made quite clear that Rondait was entirely aware of reasons to doubt the truth of his information and the intentions of his source, but he still felt it within his rights as a member of the press to publish it, thinking himself shielded from justice. While I have no hard feelings against him, I cannot let false, libelous, and outright paranoidly conspiratorial claims against me stand on our fair forum (especially during election season), and I'm certain that any members of the jury would prefer their own reputations don't get any more damaged than they already are by the truth.
 

Rondait

Well-Known Member
Member
Well, I hate to make this boring, but outside of his claim that I was attempting to hurt his character/campaign, he's not wrong. It was wrong of me to post that. As such, I plead guilty to reckless disregard for the truth. I was mostly banking on the charges being malicious bamboozlement which would be easy to defend against.
 

Rondait

Well-Known Member
Member
I've only been charged with reckless disregard for the truth by the court. With that said, reckless disregard for the truth isn't an actual charge in most courts, but merely a standard for charging someone with defamation, or in this case libel. As such, if it pleases the plaintiff and the court, could the charges be changed to just libel, in which case I plead guilty to that?
 
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Easy

Right Honorable Justice
Member
Brief recess and I'll come back with a sentence, then. To clarify: My understanding of the proceedings at this point is among the lines of:

- Prosecution formally adds charge of libel
- Defendant pleads guilty to one count of libel
- Prosecution drops charges of Reckless Disregard
 

Easy

Right Honorable Justice
Member
COURT IS HEREBY INFORMED that as of 14:57 EST on Monday, the Nineteenth of March, in this the 2018'th year of the Lord, forumer @Rondait confessed to and was found GUILTY of libel against Mod-Mayor @Tirin. The Convicted will now be sentenced.

Normally, in attempting to construct suitable models for passing sentence on a conviction, the Court will treat sovereign law of the affected party's geopolitical home states as loose guidelines for establishing precedent. In light of the convicted's choice of career path outside of these Forums, the Court had originally intended to draw especially heavily from this kind of legal precedent, both to serve a practical example of a potential occupational hazard to look out for in his future, and in order to more reliably render the short of punishment he could have reasonably expected to risk at the time of the offense in question.

However, as it happens, the particulars of the case would in fact preclude any punitive action under Canadian law, which holds that "a person who posts hyperlinks on a website which lead to another site with defamatory content is not publishing that defamatory material for the purposes of libel and defamation law."* Further, most American jurisdictions require that reckless disregard for the truth be demonstrated in order to pursue a libel charge. This has neither been done, nor even much attempted, and neither has the Convicted received any profit in Likes from the article in question, which currently stands at a rating of Ł0.00 as of the time of sentencing.

As such, the Court will merely require that the Mach Times print a correction along with a public apology to Mod-Mayor Tirin by the end of the month, for their clear oversight in failing to account for the discrepancy in dates provided by the Rogue Tusk sources, as noted by the Prosecution.

The Rogue Tusk itself, led by Forumer @Walrus, is further issued with an official warning against such attempts at defamation of another Forumer in the future. No punitive action will be taken, however, as the Tusk cannot be said to have published the material themselves. Other journalistic outlets, and readers themselves, are nonetheless strongly advised to take this incident into their consideration when evaluating the Rogue Tusk's credibility as a source.

Finally, given the gravity of the competing allegations of corruption, treason, and dissident terrorism leveled at various points in relation to this incident, Forum Executive High Authority @RECONmaster (and/or appointed agent) is issued with an official warrant to investigate such claims as he sees fit, provided that no punitive action is taken against a third party who refuses to disclose information pertinent to the case. Unless renewed, this warrant will expire in thirty days, and any special coercive action must be terminated at or before the time of expiration.

*(Crookes v. Newton 2011 SCC 47, [2011] 3 SCR 269 (19 October 2011), Supreme Court (Canada).)**
**(Apparently.)


...

This CONCLUDES the case of Tirin v. Mach Times. Court will now adjourn, pending any future cases to be held.

Accusations may be submitted privately, through correspondence with the Justice, or publicly, in this thread.

(Given that the Court is a public institution, and does not operate in a secretive or exclusive manner, accusations may NOT be submitted anonymously.)

COURT IS ADJOURNED.
 

Tirin

God-Emperor of Tealkind
Moderator
Finally, given the gravity of the competing allegations of corruption, treason, and dissident terrorism leveled at various points in relation to this incident, Forum Executive High Authority @RECONmaster (and/or appointed agent) is issued with an official warrant to investigate such claims as he sees fit, provided that no punitive action is taken against a third party who refuses to disclose information pertinent to the case. Unless renewed, this warrant will expire in thirty days, and any special coercive action must be terminated at or before the time of expiration.
I welcome the vindication, and urge @RECONmaster to investigate these false claims; I will provide any evidence requested from me to the best of my ability. Thank you for your judgement.
 

Tirin

God-Emperor of Tealkind
Moderator
I, Mod-Mayor Tirin, am hereby lodging a case against @coolpool2. "Tirin," you might say, "how could you possibly prosecute Coolpool? He's one of the sweetest forumers in history, and to boot you might get slain if you bring an OG balla gangsta into court." Well, I'll tell you how: I charge Coolpool with overwhelming cuteness, which he has used over the years to wrap his adorable widdle tendrils around the hearts of almost every member of Mach Entertainment - myself included! This is a violation of our rights to be savages and possibly some (unsubtle) form of mind control.

I submit this case to Justice @Easy in hopes of a swift response.
 

Easy

Right Honorable Justice
Member
All right, I'm willing to allow the case be heard. For clarification, though, are you charging him with being criminally cute or just (un)civilly, unreasonably cute?
 

Tirin

God-Emperor of Tealkind
Moderator
Can I get a definition of each? Because from where I'm standing, it's difficult to distinguish, and it sounds like you don't want me to just charge him with both.
 

Easy

Right Honorable Justice
Member
Can I get a definition of each? Because from where I'm standing, it's difficult to distinguish, and it sounds like you don't want me to just charge him with both.
Mostly the degree, though both are beyond reasonable normal limits for consistent, sustained cuteness and a criminal charge would require either clear intent to warm erry body's hearts all the time, or reckless disregard for the consequences and potential repercussions of such behavior.
 
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