Shaka Pow urges bloggers to fact-check information

Medical doctor and recording artiste Garth 'Shaka Pow' McDonald is urging bloggers to fact-check information before disseminating it on the World Wide Web. This comes after his reputation was almost irreversibly damaged when a blog site used his image in a report on a rape case. Though his face was blurred out, the medical doctor said that this did not stop people from recognising him.

He wants bloggers to be more careful. "They (bloggers) need to be more responsible in how they put out information. In fact, anyone at all who uses the internet informally needs to be more careful because the information that they spread, if it's not factual, could have adverse effects on people's lives. Something like this could have caused my death or irreversible damage to my career," he told THE WEEKEND STAR. "The image was going out there with 'find this raper' attached, and in our society, anyone who rape - is one of the worst possible things. It automatically put my life at risk. I strongly urge people to check facts before publishing. Confirm the information because something like this could have turned out way worse."

McDonald, who in May was awarded the Ambassador for Peace Award from the Universal Peace Federation, said that the story has since been removed from the blog site but that his lawyers have now got involved. He says that action must be taken against the bloggers because his family suffered greatly from the false accusations. "Someone took my image and used it without confirmation of anything. My wife and mother overseas were left in tears. It really took a toll on them."