Future....
I can understand a company wanting to protect themselves against deliberate slander, but from what I have read, she was found guilty of defamation only because she refused to name her source, which is very common as protecting a source of information is very important. The fact that she isn't affiliated with any known media outlet shouldn't come into play.
If indeed she was lying and deliberately in order to cause the company harm, then yes, she should be fined.
The worry thing though that I get from the article is whether this is going to spread to other bloggers and how much should they be on their guards? Even if they report the truth, but the offended company/ corporation dislikes the article can they also take similar action against the blogger who has no official media affiliated?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
