[the truth]

A balance has to be drawn with so many people being accused and falsely accused in this trial by twitter, trial by media age
today we saw a ref falsely accused on second hand information by a brazillian player called ramirez who I dont think speaks any english...it now transpires that he alleged that mikel was called monkey by the referee, the ref says he simply called him mikel....the rest of the allegation seems to have disappeared...the chelsea player mikel is now being investigated for abusive and threatening behaviour....who knows what abusive comments he made at the referee as do so many players, yet that abuse is ignored in a system of total double standards.

the ONLy way this will slowly rebalance is when the falsely accused get paid more and more compensation and false accusers will become far wearier before making public allegations instead of going quietly and properly via the fa , the police the lawyers....chelsea went public and now they must pay for that. the same club backed terry to the hilt when he was accused. why? self interest. in the end terry was found innocent in court but guilty by the football authorities. what a mess. this case ultimately seems like a misunderstanding. however in cases where the charges are totally made up or as with the lord and the alleged abuse, the sheer callous unprofessionalism of phillip schofield should have seen him sacked. In many cases of serious false allegations totally made up for personal gain, those people need to go to prison. period

[Alf]

people don't take offense, they just get on with life

but people do take offense for other people, which causes all the problem's

[the truth]

Originally Posted by wannashag

people don't take offense, they just get on with life

but people do take offense for other people, which causes all the problem's

fair point, especially when the people who do take offense often are not privvy to all the details of the case...the player believed the second hand account and decided to act on it and acted on it and slandered the mans name in public.

[joeysteele]

I think it depewnds what someone is being falsely accused of.
Overall I would support stiffer punishments for those who falsely accuse others but I am not sure Prison would be particularly the best way forward.

[Nedusa]

I think false accusers of crimes that carry a high degree of stigma that can stay with the falsely accused long after they have been shown to be innocent, should be liable to imprisonment. To be falsely accused of rape or sexual abuse to children can create a powerful stigma that can follow the unfortunate person for years to come.

Anyone who deliberately sets out to falsely accuse a completely innocent person of crimes of this type does so with the full knowledge that the accusation alone can have a devastating effect on the persons life regardless if the complaint is proven or withdrawn. The action of bringing an allegation of this type is a crime in itself and if proved to be malicious the perpetrator should face a custodial sentence.

[SharkAttack]

Originally Posted by joeysteele

I think it depewnds what someone is being falsely accused of.
Overall I would support stiffer punishments for those who falsely accuse others but I am not sure Prison would be particularly the best way forward.

One thousand pounds penalty for each word of libel spoken or written, falsely, on someone else's behalf, if justified. Spaces, pauses, and common punctuation(commas, periods, semicolons, etc) are only 500 hundred pounds each. Ers and Ums are 4000 pounds a pop. Let's see those false ranting idiots make their cases with words per pounds at stake. Rich liars can end up paying for new libraries, or helping out schools or other great causes.

[Kizzy]

Originally Posted by SharkAttack

One thousand pounds penalty for each word of libel spoken or written, falsely, on someone else's behalf, if justified. Spaces, pauses, and common punctuation(commas, periods, semicolons, etc) are only 500 hundred pounds each. Ers and Ums are 4000 pounds a pop. Let's see those false ranting idiots make their cases with words per pounds at stake. Rich liars can end up paying for new libraries, or helping out schools or other great causes.

Haha, what a great idea, mind you to me the thought of anyone taking seriously what a person 'tweets' is silly.
However, when it is someone who really should know better like Sally Bercow then they deserve to be made an example of.

[Livia]

Twitter is covered by the same defamation laws as if you said it in public.

[Jords]

Will probably just clog up the prisons more, fine their asses.