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February 6, 2008

Anonymous blogger reasserts right to privacy

By Martin Stabe wirepost

The writer behind the sex blog and book Girl with a One Track mind, has responded to the item in this week’s Axegrinder column noting that the Sunday Times has hired Anna Mikhailova, the journalist who exposed her real identity in 2006.

The blogger, who writes under the pseudonym Abby Lee, points to the editors’ code of conduct section on privacy and writes:

“I fundamentally believe that everyone, anonymous sexbloggers included, has the right to privacy; I will support, protect and uphold others’ right to this, no matter what. No journalist should expose information about someone unless a crime has been committed or it is in the public interest.

She also warns bloggers who write under a pseudonym that their anonymity may not be permanent and that they should always be ready to lose it in the way that she did.

In 2006, a Sunday Times story exposed Zoe Margolis as being the person behind the blog, leading to a furious backlash from bloggers, which was later directed at then acting news editor Nicholas Hellen after Margolis published an e-mail he had sent to her before the story appeared.

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