European Union judges have ruled that Delfi, a leading Internet news website is legally responsible for offensive views posted by readers in the site’s comments section.
In January 2006, Delfi published an article about a ferry company’s decision to change its routes and thus delay the opening of alternative and cheaper ice roads to certain islands.
Many readers then wrote highly offensive or threatening posts about the ferry operator and its owner. The owner successfully sued Delfi in April 2006 and was awarded €320 (US$433).
Delfi argued that it was not responsible for the comments and that the fine violated E.U. freedom of expression laws. However the judges agreed that Article 10 of E.U. law allowed freedom of expression to be interfered with by national courts in order to protect a person’s reputation, as long as the interference was proportionate to the circumstances.
Because visitors of Delfi can anonymously comment on every news story, this site generates debates over freedom of speech in the Baltic States. Some members of the Estonian and Lithuanian Parliaments have proposed laws making Delfi and other news portals responsible for the contents of anonymous comments.In September 2006, attorneys of Artūras Zuokas, the mayor for Vilnius, asked public prosecutors to seize Delfi servers and reveal the IP addresses of all anonymous commentators that have written comments about him in several Delfi publications.
