Can I sue a blogger?

Dear Mirror Lawyer, I am not here to brag, but I am a very influential person. In fact, I am considered an influencer on social media. I have 4,000 followers on Instagram, and my YouTube channel has almost one million subscribers.

Many companies come to me to advertise their products, and that is how I earn my daily bread. Almost all the top brands in the country, as well as some in Nigeria, come to me for assistance with their brand campaigns. 

Recently, my attention was drawn to a young blogger who used a picture of me, posted on Facebook in a bikini on a yacht in Dubai, as the cover page of a story.

The story was meant to expose the secret life of rich young girls who were using their bodies to seduce men on social media and making money out of it.

He concluded that some of them go to Dubai as sex workers for rich men, and that is how they make their money. 

Lawyer, I work hard for my money. I do have a very curvy body, but I do not engage in any of the things he has written.

Please, lawyer, due to this blog, a lot of the companies I work for have refused to renew their contracts with me; I am losing my source of income. 

Apart from the money I am losing, my friends are shunning me. Even my parents have questioned me about the blog post. I cannot go out in public without people pointing fingers at me. The young man has destroyed me. How can the law help me? 

Seida Bootylicious, 
Accra. 

Dear Seida, placing your picture wearing bikini shorts inside a yacht on the cover page of a magazine with the comments that such girls use their bodies to seduce men on social media and end up in Dubai as sex workers for the rich is such a serious statement to the public about the character traits of any woman in this country. 

If the story is true, the blogger would be justified in exposing such moral turpitude in society.

But if it turns out to be false, the blogger would have defamed people like you by painting an inaccurate image of you, your character, and behaviour, which is appallng in society.

This is because there is nothing wrong with taking a vacation, dressing casually in bikini shorts on the beach or riverfront, and going on a cruise in a yacht.

What is wrong is the information communicated to the public about the person in the picture, as was done in this case. 

Basically, defamation is the making of an untrue statement about a person that negatively affects that person’s reputation. There are two types of defamation: slander and libel.

Libel refers to written defamatory statements, such as those made in books, newspapers, letters, or other permanent forms of communication, including WhatsApp and other social media platforms.

Slander, on the other hand, is a defamatory statement made orally. It is, therefore, not permanent, and that is what differentiates it from libel. 

To establish defamation, you must show that the statement is derogatory and unacceptable within your community, that the statement was made about you or you were the one mentioned in what was said or written, and that the statement was communicated to the hearing or reading by third parties apart from you and the person who made the statement.

This is known as publication in defamation law. Thus, for a statement to be defamatory, there must be publication without any basis.

This publication must be designed to injure a person’s reputation by exposing that person to hatred, contempt, or ridicule among right-thinking members of the society where the person lives.  

Producers and editors of magazines aim to enhance their publications by making them engaging and visually appealing to readers.

A cover page featuring a woman in bikini shorts relaxing on a yacht in resort destinations like Dubai will be attractive to lovers of vacation and entertainment.

So, where the picture depicts a real human being, the person's consent must be sought. It would be an act of carelessness to just pick any picture from a social media blog and use it as the cover story without communicating with the person. The risk in such behaviour is unpardonable. 

In your case, placing your picture wearing bikini shorts on a yacht on the cover page of a magazine with the comments that such girls use their bodies to seduce men on social media and end up in Dubai as sex workers for the rich amounts to prostitution is abhorred morally in Ghanaian society.

It is, thus, a serious and unacceptable statement to make about a woman in Ghanaian society.

It is a kind of statement that will affect a marketer’s reputation in the eyes of potential employers and consumers. The derogatory statement about you was made because your picture was associated with the comments. 

The statement was also published, in that the communication on the general class WhatsApp platform was seen and read by at least one other person, apart from you and the person making the statement. 

You can sue this blogger for defamation. By using your picture as the cover page for his story, it is assumed in the minds of right-thinking people that you engage in such acts as he has written. 

As you say, the blog has been read by many people, including the companies that work with you, your friends, and your parents, which is causing feelings of ridicule, contempt, fear and