DELFI AS v. ESTONIA JUDGMENT
3
- contain insults;
- incite hostility and violence;
- incite illegal activities ...
- contain obscene expressions and vulgarities ...
Delfi has the right to remove such comments and restrict their authors’ access to the
writing of comments ...”
The functioning of the notice-and-take-down system was also explained
in the text.
11. The Government submitted that in Estonia Delfi had a notorious
history of publishing defaming and degrading comments. Thus, on
22 September 2005 the weekly newspaper Eesti Ekspress had published a
public letter from the editorial board to the Minister of Justice, the Chief
Public Prosecutor and the Chancellor of Justice in which concern was
expressed about incessant taunting of people on public websites in Estonia.
Delfi was named as a source of brutal and arrogant mockery.
B. Article and comments published on the Internet news portal
12. On 24 January 2006 the applicant company published an article on
the Delfi portal under the heading ‘SLK Destroyed Planned Ice Road’. Ice
roads are public roads over the frozen sea which are open between the
Estonian mainland and some islands in winter. The abbreviation SLK stands
for AS Saaremaa Laevakompanii (Saaremaa Shipping Company, a public
limited company). SLK provides a public ferry transport service between
the mainland and some islands. L. was a member of the supervisory board
of SLK and the company’s sole or majority shareholder at the material time.
13. On 24 and 25 January 2006 the article attracted 185 comments.
About twenty of them contained personal threats and offensive language
directed against L.
14. On 9 March 2006 L.’s lawyers requested the applicant company to
remove the offensive comments and claimed 500,000 kroons (EEK)
(approximately 32,000 euros (EUR)) in compensation for non-pecuniary
damage. The request concerned the following twenty comments:
“1. 1. there are currents in [V]äinameri
2. open water is closer to the places you referred to, and the ice is thinner.
Proposal – let’s do as in 1905, let’s go to [K]uressaare with sticks and put [L.] and
[Le.] in bag
2. fucking shitheads...