The risk of a web free-for-all?

The short video, which drew several complaints over the two weeks it was available to view, showed an Italian student with learning difficulties being taunted by associates. Google had no part in its creation or in the decision to publish it. The company also acted fairly quickly to remove it.

However, it did own the video sharing site and the site carried paid-for advertising material. The judge in the case, Oscar Magi, was clear that by selling advertising on the site Google was attempting to make commercial gain from publication of the video.

Google told Associated Press that the Italian court decision "attacks the very principles of freedom on which the Internet is built". Many share that view, but should publication to the internet be considered so differently from other media?

International media law has developed over decades to ensure individuals and organisations can be protected from untrue or vindictive claims. It also provides a framework within which journalists and broadcasters can shield themselves from the legal might of those they report on.

The internet is a fantastic tool for distribution of information because it is available to all, from the largest media organisations down to the smallest pressure group or individual.

Reputable publishers - and that includes European Plastics News and all its sister publications - apply the same standard of reporting on the web as in their traditional media. But not all web publishers do. Illegal appropriation, non-disclosure of vested interests, and deliberate inaccuracies are rife across the internet.

Back in 2008, Professor Tim Berners-Lee, who is widely credited as the founder of the web as we know it, called for a rating system for web sites to differentiate those proven trustworthy from the rest.

That is probably an impossible aim. Simply looking at coverage of live plastics issues such as bisphenol-A by even the best of the global mainstream media groups shows that accuracy will often lose out to emotion where science or risk assessment come into play.

However, if the internet becomes an environment where anyone can publish whatever they want, whenever they want, about whoever they want, then society risks squandering perhaps the greatest invention of our time.

Tell us what you think