Australian outs blogger Grog’s Gamut

The Australian has this morning made the controversial move of publicly naming anonymous political blogger Grog’s Gamut.

In an article in today’s Media section of the newspaper, journalist James Massola names him as Greg Jericho, who works at the Department of Environment, Heritage, Water and the Arts.  

The paper justified the move because the blogger’s comments had been acknowledged by ABC boss Mark Scott.

Jericho has already responded, saying in a posting this morning: “Today James Massola of The Australian has taken it upon himself to out me. Apparently knowing I am Greg Jericho is ‘in the public interest’ because the head of the ABC, Mark Scott, mentioned in a speech that my blog post attacking journalists’ coverage of the campaign (and specifically the lack of policy) was mentioned at an ABC executive meeting.

He warned that as a result of the exposure, he might be forced to halt the blog:

“If to keep doing my job means I have to stop blogging and tweeting, well then I’ll do that; this is just a hobby after all. I guess I’ll have to try my hand at fiction. I would be sad if it comes to that, but that is life.”

Meanwhile, The Australian’s media editor Geoff Elliott wrote an unapologetic  separate article headed “No anonymity to bloggers, tweeters”, saying:

If you are a public servant and blogging and tweeting, sometimes airing a partisan political line, do you deserve anonymity? No.”