I have been following this since the news broke (here anyway) yesterday.

I went off and did a little research on this one before making any comment, but apparently Gutnick has been accused of having dealings with Nachum Goldberg, who was jailed last June for using a bogus Israeli charity to launder more than $40 million. An allegation Gutnick denies and says has damaged his business profile (in Australia - where he does business).

This is in reaction to a specific allegation against a specific individual and because of the internet it can be read with ease anywhere, unlike printed press where the cases of defamation tend to be where the article was printed - boils down to distribution I guess. This article was on a subscribed site so the target audience would have been fairly high profile business-people worldwide - some who do/did have dealings with Gutnick. He is still going to have to prove how his reputation was damaged by the publishing of the article.

I dont think it threatens free speech, I have always said, with free speech come responsibility to back up what you are saying with valid arguements/proof - so if Dow Jones can back up the story with proof they have nothing to worry about. A case of putting you money where your mouth is.

I guess the nature of the internet will make this an intersting case. In theory someone could hide behind a webserver in some obscure part of the world and spread their hate and lies with impunity, if this case fails.

If it succeeds, I guess more research will go into articles before they are made available on the web, not necessarily a bad thing.

Bit of background is here ... http://old.smh.com.au/news/0106/07/b.../biztech5.html

I am sitting on the fence with this one and will be following the case to see where it leads, with interest.

This is bound to generate some lively discussions.