Online reader comments are "a vital form of accountability," says @ggreenwald, describing how @the_intercept works: http://t.co/mr5uMWbBSd
— Margaret Sullivan (@Sulliview) March 3, 2014
[Olivia O'Kane (@OliviaOKane1) earlier looked at the law in Delfi AS v Estonia here]
Under the judgement (October 10 2013) handed down by Europe's Chamber of the First Section, Delfi and other online news sites are responsible for anonymous comments. This was a decision to uphold the Estonian court. The Court held that Delfi, one of Estonia’s main news websites, was liable for defamatory comments from its users. This was in spite of the fact that Delfi had taken down the comments as soon as they had been notified of them.
In the Delfi AS v Estonia case the Court held that there had been no violation of Article 10. It found that the finding of liability by the Estonian courts was a justified and proportionate restriction on the portal’s right to freedom of expression, in particular, because: the comments were highly offensive; the portal failed to prevent them from becoming public, profited from their existence, but allowed their authors to remain anonymous; and, the fine imposed by the Estonian courts was not excessive.
