Dear Sir,

Blogging anonymously is probably one of the nastiest and most cowardly forms of expression.

For the health of this island, please review and amend the paper’s policy on blogging by removing the right to blog anonymously.

The Royal Gazette requires those who write Letters to the Editor to have their names published, which begs the question: why do we allow anonymous blogging if it is not allowed for the Letters to the Editor?

This is not a consistent policy and discriminates between those who write formal letters and those who have internet and publish their views online. If you were required to put your name with your blog views, the blogs would be less hateful, less inciteful and would also stop the use of many different blog names being used by one person, falsely giving the impression that more people have this view.

Our island is having a really tough time with so much nasty rhetoric and this paper condones it. It is much easier to be nasty when you are anonymous, while using your own name makes you think carefully about what and how you want to say it.

If this paper is to participate in responsible reporting, it is essential that The Royal Gazette ensures its policy is the same for writing Letters to the Editor as it is for bloggers to write directly.

Please can this be amended sooner rather than later, as this policy creates much too much damage to our island.

SARAH HAYCOCK