Positive responses to Radosław Sikorski’s lawsuits
We are pleased to announce that the initial reactions to Radosław Sikorski’s action against anonymous slander and abuse on internet chatrooms are already coming in.
The editors of Puls Biznesu and Fakt, who were recently informed of the legal action Minister Sikorski is taking against them, have already removed the most offensive and anti-Semitic entries from their online discussion forums.
A debate about the limits of decency, responsibility and freedom of speech is taking place in the media and online. The Minister and his close associates are receiving messages of support from Poland and abroad, including Germany and Canada.
Ringer Axel Springer Polska, the publishers of Fakt, have issued a statement, which includes the following: “Anti-Semitic comments online are disgusting and unacceptable. All such entries have been removed from the fakt.pl forum, and the editorial board is making every effort to respond decisively and remove offensive content as soon as is legally possible.”
The editor-in-chief of Puls Biznesu published a statement online:
On behalf of the editorial board of pb.pl, I apologise to Minister Radosław Sikorski and all those who rightly felt affected by some of the entries that appeared on our website, including slanderous and anti-Semitic comments.“According to our code of conduct, users are responsible for the comments they post, and must agree “not to write any offensive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening or other material that may violate the law.” We make data regarding the authors of offensive entries available at the request of law enforcement organs. Unfortunately, this system has proved flawed in some cases. With this in mind, we made registration compulsory in March. This has resulted in a fall in the number of comments posted, but also a hike in the level of discussion. I hope it will continue to rise.
Offensive entries have been removed. We would also like to remind users about the icon that accompanies every comment and allows them to inform the website’s moderators if they have doubts about an entry.