MCD is taking legal action against the site boards.ie for allegedly hosting a defamatory statement about Oxegen. The discussion forum was targeted by the Denis Desmond-owned music promotions company, after festival goers used it to complain about tent-burning and fighting at the festival in Kildare last month.

Last month, solicitors acting for it wrote to boards.ie complaining that a post was defamatory and requesting its removal. The site then banned all discussion connected to MCD events, bands and venues. It has since lifted the ban in part, but discussion of the Oxegen festival is still not allowed.

MCD also requested an apology, which boards.ie has so far refused to give. As a result, MCD has told The Sunday Times that legal proceedings have been issued.

Frustrated by the lack of opportunity to air their views, another music fan has established mcdwatch.org. The owner of the forum, who will not be named, said he set up the site as he was disappointed that legal threats had caused boards.ie to censor discussions.

“People should be allowed to express their opinions freely,” he said.

“The internet should be the forum to share your view. MCD should be in China if this is the type of thing it’s trying to do. You can’t go after everyone who expresses a bad opinion about an event. Ireland is well behind in development of online publishing and cases like this show people aren’t sure what can be put online.”

The boards.ie ban followed the closure of the official Oxegen message board, which had been used by festival goers to make allegations of tent burning and looting at the concert.

Gardai have confirmed that they are investigating one case of sexual assault. They said some tent fires were caused by their owners but confirmed that complaints had been made relating to property damage and theft. There were more than 50 arrests at the concert for offences such as public order breaches, theft, dealing in illegal substances and criminal damage.

The author of the boards.ie post criticised MCD’s security at the concert, claiming it was insufficient to deal with the looting and burning. The anonymous poster also urged people to contact a journalist at the Irish Independent who had interviewed revellers caught up in fighting at the campsite.

Last Friday, MCD issued a statement saying it had received 76 complaints from the 80,000 people who attended Oxegen, which it described as “an excellent result”.

The statement also said the official Oxegen message board was always scheduled to close five days after the event and that it would reopen in November when tickets went on sale for next year’s event.

Denis Desmond, the managing director of MCD, admitted there were lessons to be learned from the event.

“Antisocial behaviour will not be tolerated at any MCD event,” he said. “We will continue to provide a high standard of care for our customers. And our security team, along with the Garda, will provide all the appropriate protections and those individuals found to have caused any unnecessary distress for other customers will be dealt with.”

Irish law covering defamation on the internet has not been tested in the courts. It is unclear if website owners can be held responsible for comments posted on their site by others. A source in MCD said it believed websites should be held as responsible as a newspaper.

The boards.ie site is ranked as Ireland’s 18th most popular site, ahead of the RTE and Aer Lingus sites. John Breslin, the owner of boards.ie, was unavailable for comment, but wrote on his blog that the MCD letter was among a number of legal threats he had received recently.

“We still feel that users are responsible for their own comments . . . without the communications channel being liable,” he wrote. “However, we will happily remove defamatory messages as soon as we are notified of them. But we’d prefer if legal proceedings aren’t issued as we don’t want the actions of a few people to ruin this service for 70,000 others.”

Times Recommends

• Robert McNamara dies aged 93
• German soldiers earn new ‘Iron Cross’
• Great Barrier Reef 'gone within 20 years'