I've noticed a lot of Blogs for Belize. Most of them are just telling of their experiences in Belize, some have turned into internet newspapers. For the ones that are a "Online newspaper" what are the legalities of these papers? Can the one-man (woman)-operation say and do whatever they want to publish. Can they do character assassination of people they don't like? When they include a Message Board in the blog that does not require validation of writer. Can they print lies to try and discredit a person. Can they publish an editorial without checking it out? Or do they have to answer to the same code of a legal Newspaper? Is there such a thing as a code of ethics? Are they liable to be sued for abuse of power?

In the past, I've seen when a thread gets out of hand, Marty, you just kill the thread. But what happens when the person who owns the blog rather keep a character assignation going because she feels that "it's good reading?". What are the options available?