An Email

I have just received an email:

Dear Longrider,

I would like to request the following thread be removed please:

https://www.longrider.co.uk/blog/2010/07/30/childfree/

The thread cites a BBC article in which my name was mentioned despite, at the time, my request that I remain anonymous during the interview. As a result of criticism I have received for my comments during the interview, I managed to have the article removed from the BBC website, after much difficulty. I noticed during a web search that my name still appears on your site. I would greatly appreciate if you could remove the thread from your site, as the article and its reaction has caused me personal distress. This would mean a lot to me and I would very much appreciate your cooperation.

Thank you and kind regards,

As you can imagine, I was a little taken aback as this was a decade ago, so I’d have thought any such discussion would have been largely forgotten.

If you follow the link, you will see that it is a fairly innocuous one. The person concerned gave an interview to the BBC. Probably not overly wise, talking to the media and one I have a strict rule about. If the beeb failed to keep her anonymous despite requests, then that’s not good. However, again, I’m puzzled as to why this is even an issue. Had it been me, I’d have reacted exactly as I mentioned in my post at the time – a sharp rejoinder to mind one’s own business. A piece of advice I would offer to my correspondent here. You said it, so own it if you meant what you said.

Anyway, I have edited out this person’s name as a courtesy as it isn’t essential to the discussion. What I will not do, however, is completely remove the thread. There is nothing there that is either factually incorrect or libellous. I will not self-censor as a matter of principle – even if it is a decade old.

Incidentally, if you follow the threads, the BBC has not removed the original article and rightly so. They have, like me, anonymised the name.