Norway killings bring clampdown on online hate speech

Council for Mass Media in Finland draws up more precise guidelines

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By Hanna Syrjälä
     
      The Council for Mass Media in Finland, this country’s media ethics watchdog, is revising its guidelines for online message boards and chat rooms run by media outlets in Finland.
      Under the existing rules, media outlets are required to block the publication of content that violate human dignity, and to remove any such material if it is posted on the website.
      Now the council wants to include a new passage which defines incitement to violence and hate as content that violates human dignity.
     
The council has been working on guidelines for online message boards and chat rooms for several months. The council’s support organisation is expected to give its approval to the guidelines at its meeting on September 5th.
      “We added a mention of hate speech in the instructions. It would have been odd not to do so after the events in Norway”, says Risto Uimonen, chairman of the Council for Mass Media in Finland.
     
Some Finnish media outlets upgraded the monitoring of their message boards soon after the tragedy in Norway. Blogs and messages were taken down from the Uusi Suomi website. Some inflammatory messages were also removed from the discussion board of the financial news website Arvopaperi.
      The newspapers Kaleva, Keskisuomalainen, and Helsingin Sanomat have not changed their guidelines on monitoring their online discussions, saying that existing rules are sufficiently strict, and that no clampdown has been necessary.
      “Even before it has not been permissible to defame or vilify anyone. If messages like this have slipped past the moderator onto the message board, they have been removed”, says Pekka Mervola, editor-in-chief of Keskisuomalainen.
     
At the Oulu-based newspaper Kaleva, editor-in-chief Markku Mantila says that after the events in Norway, the moderator of the newspaper’s message board discussion was instructed to be even more vigilant than before.
      Helsingin Sanomat editor-in-chief Mikael Pentikäinen says that one big question is how newspapers might upgrade the content of their message boards.
      “Options include having the writer use his or her real name, a requirement of registration, and guiding the discussions.”
     
At the late-edition tabloid Iltalehti, editor-in-chief Kari Kivelä says that the events in Norway put a greater emphasis on the importance of monitoring the message boards that the paper maintains.
      “Moderation requires professional skill and rapid reaction.”
     
The new guidelines have five points. In addition to monitoring websites and removing offensive messages, sites aimed at children and young people should be scrutinised very closely.
      The public must also be offered the opportunity to report inappropriate content in such a way that the person making a notification receives an acknowledgement that the message was received.
      In addition, the distinction between message boards for the public at large and material produced by those writing for the site must be kept clear.
     
Until now the Council for Mass Media in Finland has made decisions on online discussions on the basis of a statement in principle issued in 2007. According to the principles, media which monitor content of discussion boards in advance have a greater responsibility than those which check content after the fact.
      The new guidelines put the pre, and post-moderated material on the same line. “Media outlets will be obliged to remove questionable material as soon as information about it has been received, regardless of the way it is moderated”, Uimonen says.
     
The new principles are to be published as an appendix to the council’s guidelines for journalists. They will be as obligatory as the actual guidelines.
      If a media outlet does not comply with the instructions, a complaint can be made to the Council of Mass Media, which can issue a reprimand.
      According to Uimonen, responsibility for inappropriate writing is with the writer.
      “Nevertheless, it is the responsibility of the media outlet to follow material that appears on its website, and to remove it if necessary.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 29.8.2011
     


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Norway killings: About 1,500 march in Helsinki against hate and violence (1.8.2011)Norway killings: About 1,500 march in Helsinki against hate and violence (1.8.2011)
  Tragedy in Norway sparks heated political debate in Finland (1.8.2011)

HANNA SYRJÄLÄ / Helsingin Sanomat
hanna.syrjala@hs.fi