of food blogger, kaelyn ong, asked to delete post

Food blogger asked to delete post: Avid food blogger, Kaelyn Ong, was told by a pastry shop to remove her post on her dining experience at the outlet.

Read the letter by Kaelyn Ong titled "Online Only - You mean bloggers can't speak their minds?" to My Paper and published on Today Online.

Here's a snippet of her letter:

As an avid food blogger, I share my dining experiences (whether good or bad) with my readers. Sometimes, I would also send an email to the restaurants after dining there to offer my thanks and feedback. That was what I did after visiting a local pastry boutique (I will not disclose its name at this point. It will be referred to as "X"). I praised X on its boutique decor and also commented that the desserts can be further improved on.

The next day, I was shocked and disappointed to read X's reply. To cut a long email short, the gist is that she has referred my blog url to her legal consultant and wanted me to remove my post within 24hours to avoid any legal proceedings, if any. I was appalled by this and hence, decided to write to this forum as I believe this raised interesting questions that may be of interest to your readers...

...Of course, I did not remove the post on X as I believe that nothing I posted can be construed as being libel. Not once did I say any derogatory remarks or discourage readers not to visit X. There is also a disclaimer on my blog saying that all comments are based on personal preference. I have replied X's email yesterday but there has been no reply since.

This letter is definitely not a complaint. I am just concerned with this issue and would like to know what the public thinks about it. Food blogging is just a personal interest for many of us; it takes time, effort and commitment to maintain a blog.

Read Kaelyn's post on X at her food blog here.

In Kaelyn's latest post, she still supports X by asking readers not to boycott X.

P.S.: Please do not boycott X! Give them a chance.