Council for Mass Media is tougher towards media that pre-moderate online forums than those that post-moderate such content
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By Hannu Syrjälä
“Not for publication.”
Kaisa Hakkarainen, moderator-in-charge of Helsingin Sanomat's online reader feedback forums on hs.fi, reaches her decision quickly after having skimmed through a message from a member of the public.
In his text the writer urges hardship on the heads of “all those that pander to the immigrants and the Roma and suchlike”.
This time around the decision to disallow the comment outright was an easy enough one to make. But this is not always the case.
“The rule of thumb is: if in doubt, leave it out.”
The Helsingin Sanomat discussion forums are pre-moderated.
This means that someone has to read through all the messages before they are published online.
This pre-moderating work is being carried out every day of the week from the early morning until midnight.
The majority of the Finnish dailies that come out seven days a week pre-moderate their discussion forums, explains the latest issue of Suomen Lehdistö (“Finland’s Press"), a journal published ten times a year by the Finnish Newspapers’ Association.
Certain dailies, however, prefer to post-moderate the content of their “Have Your Say” forums.
This means that the readers' comments appear online uncensored.
Only if someone points out that a comment is inappropriate in one way or another is it removed after the fact.
The Council for Mass Media in Finland (JSN) is the body that deals with the complaints related to the online discussion forums. It bases its rulings on a principle resolution from 2007.
The resolution states that more is demanded of the pre- than the post-moderating media.
This is based on the notion that the pre-moderating media are seen performing a publishing decision.
The post-moderators, on the other hand, do not make this decision. Instead, the responsibility for a message remains more clearly with its original author.
Last week Helsingin Sanomat received two cautions with regard to messages published on a reader feedback forum.
In the view of editor-in-chief Reetta Meriläinen, the current situation is frustrating.
“Those are being punished who make an effort to keep the Net dialogue on the right track and to follow certain ethical principles. Meanwhile, the post-moderators can basically get away with murder. “
JSN has set up a working group to prepare supplementary rules to be added to the journalists’ guidelines with regard to online discussion forums.
The working group’s proposal is scheduled to be presented to JSN by its meeting on December 16th. New instructions may come into force already the following day, December 17th.
“The aim is to present reasonable guidelines for both the pre- and post-moderating media. At the moment a tougher moral and judicial responsibility lies with the pre-moderating forms of media”, acknowledges JSN chairman Risto Uimonen.
In its current principle resolution, JSN recommends pre-moderation, but also accepts post-moderation.
According to Uimonen this is simple realism. Moderating calls for labour and money.
“If the number of messages on such feedback forums just keeps on growing, how can even the large publishers keep the situation in check?”
The current law draws a difference between whether the comments by the public are moderated before or after they are published online.
According to the law, the editor-in-chief’s responsibility only extends to the pre-moderated discussion forums, but JSN sees that the jurisdiction of self-regulatory systems extends to the post-moderated forums as well.
The responsibility of a message published on an online discussion forum lies also with its original author.
There have already been a few libel court cases related to raunchy comments published on the internet forums and message boards.
For example the persons who offended Susan Ruusunen [a former girlfriend of ex-Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen] on the Suomi24 discussion forum site were given fines for their comments a couple of years ago.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 19.11.2010
HANNA SYRJÄLÄ / Helsingin Sanomat
hanna.syrjala@hs.fi
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| 23.11.2010 - THIS WEEK |
 Council for Mass Media is tougher towards media that pre-moderate online forums than those that post-moderate such content |
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