FC: Swedish paper found liable for pro-Nazi rants on discussion board

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Also see:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/24352.html

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http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/3/7/15844/31987
                                      
   Swedish court holds forum owner responsible (Freedom & Politics)
   Thu Mar 7th, 2002 at 04:19:42 PM EST

   In a ruling today, a Swedish court holds the editor of thke web
   edition of Aftonbladet (a major Swedish newspaper) responsible for
   comments published on their forum, and the forum has subsequently
   closed.
   Aftonbladet was one of the first Swedish newspapers with a web
   edition. They are still the most visited website in Sweden, and they
   have up until today encouraged their visitors to voice their opinion
   on different news items in an online forum called 'Tyck till' ("Your
   opinion").
   In October 2000, four posts on the forum expressed Nazi sympathies,
   and owing to some technical problems, they were not deleted from the
   forum (which is moderated) for some time.
   This caused charges to be brought on Aftonbladet for agitation against
   an ethnic group, and the matter was resolved today when the editor of
   the web edition was found guilty of the charges, on the grounds that
   the posts were published in the first place.
   The Swedish constitution states that freedom of speech does not
   include the right to agitate against an ethnic group, and this was
   what the court felt was more important than the fact that the editor
   tried to remove the offending posts.
   This ruling sets a precedent whereby the publisher of a website can be
   held responsible for what is published in an open forum, and it might
   even spell the end for unmoderated online discussion on Swedish
   websites.




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