Sundowns MD goes to court to stop insults on website

The remarks that were posted on kickoff.com message boards by Sundowns soccer fans blamed Tsichlas for the team's poor performance of late and referred to her as a "Greek hooker", "idiot", "clown", "prostitute" and "bitch".

In court papers Tsichlas said that she didn't mind fair comment, even if it were critical of her and Sundowns, but that the statements could jeopardise negotiations on a R23-million sponsorship deal for the club. She also said that she was proud of her achievements and that she was hurt when insulting things were said about her. Her petition to the High Court is that it order that the remarks be removed, and that any future remarks of similar nature be removed within one hour of their being posted.

Richard Maguire, editor of Kick Off magazine, which is affiliated to the website, described the comments as "no more than the views of fans expressing themselves in a passionate and harmless, even if sometimes abusive, fashion." He volunteered to remove comments containing the word "prostitute" as "a gesture of goodwill" and to avoid further litigation. Remarks referring to "idiots" and "clowns" he however described as "meaningless abuse" and argued that Tsichlas should be used to attracting comments and criticism as a prominent member of society.

According to Maguire it is part of the participants' constitutional right to freedom of expression to vent their feelings on the website. He also said that it was not possible to constantly monitor content.

Rudi Briedenham, an adviser in IT law, describes the court case as a first for South Africa since the ECT Act was passed in August last year. He said that comments made on a website constitute electronic communication, which would then fall under the Act and, as far as I am aware, there hasn't been any precedent to test the legislation."

The application has been postponed to March 11.