name =shame?

What are the ethics of bloggers when it comes to anonymous bloggers and their identities?

Is one blogger honor bound to respect the wish for anonymity of another blogger? Or is the other blogger asking for it anyway since you cannot hide anything forever on the Net? Interesting debate about this in Rocky Bru beginning with this entry:

An Ugly Side of Blogging. When politician Ariff Sabri who runs the blog Sakmongkol AK47 decided to expose the identity of A Voice after a cyber-spat with the “anonymous” blogger, he was being unethical. He committed an indecent act against a blogger buddy. At least, to me, that was clearly the case. To some others, including Sakmongkol who said it was a rib-tickler, it was not a sin at all. That is how common sense starts to become a rare commodity.

I know A Voice quite well; I have not met Sakmongkol but have heard good things about him. A Voice and Sakmongkol know each other, personally and politically: A Voice has very few good words to say about Khairy Jamaluddin. Sakmongkol seems to have nothing bad to utter about the Umno Youth chief.

But that’s okay. Among Umno bloggers, I’ve observed, pro-Mukhriz operatives can sit down at the same table with their pro-Khir Toyo or pro-Mike Tyson or pro-KJ or pro-Ali Rustam counterparts. There was a time when pro-Pakatan bloggers would put their arms around pro-BN and pro-nobody bloggers but now they don’t do that anymore. But that’s another story.

I have asked A Voice many times to shed his anonymity and to blog as himself (I asked every Anon Blogger to do that, anyway). Each time, he would say “it’s not time yet”. Anonymity gives someone like A Voice the freedom to comment on issues without having to worry about being sued or jeopardizing the positions of people close to him or his sources. The ECM-Libra scandal involving Kalimullah and Gang and the Son-in-Law, for example, was very much his handiwork. A Voice also had a hand in exposing the IJN takeover bid orchestrated by certain quarters within the Government/Umno, despite being a staunch Umno supporter himself.

Sakmongkol should not have exposed the ID of A Voice.

via Rocky Bru.