ID President Patricia de Lille has reiterated her statement that cellphone instant-messaging service MXit is destroying relationships and allowing grown men to lure young boys and girls into traps.

However, De Lille says she has been misunderstood by those who, ‘like me, are believers in freedom of speech.

 

‘I am a living example of fighting for freedom of speech. The first court case in the New South Africa for the right to freedom of speech was fought by me and won,’ says De Lille.

‘I am making these comments about blogs and MXit in the broad context of living in a sick society where the social fabric has been destroyed, and where we struggle daily to rebuild that social fabric.

 

‘I appeal to parents to be proactive in controlling such services accessed by their children. I can put it out there for debate, but the response lies with the government,’ De Lille says.

She says that ‘unlike established standards of free speech applicable to print and electronic media that do not allow the dissemination of defamatory or slanderous information -- bloggers can slander and defame others with impunity because they can remain anonymous.

 

‘I don’t and will never stand for censorship,’ De Lille says.

 

‘I am not bashing everybody. It is not all Internet users; it’s just a minority. Is there not a way, without dismissing the concept of blogging and MXit, to make sure that when people are defamed or slandered, they are able to take the same action to which they are entitled when it happens in print and electronic media?’