ST. PETERSBURG, July 9 (RAPSI) – Russian website owners must delete defamatory material if ordered to by a court ruling, Russia’s Constitutional Court ruled on Tuesday, following a complaint by a man who said he was defamed by an Internet forum.
The ruling follows a complaint filed by Yevgeny Krylov, who claimed that in October 2009 an unidentified author posted Krylov’s photographs on an Internet forum and complemented them with his own captions and opinions.
"Later, anonymous forum users discussed that information, adding a variety of insulting comments to it," the court said in a statement.
A court in the district where Krylov lives ruled in June 2010 that the information posted on the forum was false and defamatory. Krylov later filed a lawsuit against the forum's owner, asking the court to force the owner to delete the defamatory information about him and pay him damages.
The court dismissed the lawsuit, however, arguing it should have been filed against the authors of the abusive comments rather than the administration of the forum.
"The owners of any site, including those not registered as media outlets, will now have to delete defamatory information posted on their sites by other users, in accordance with a court decision," the Constitutional Court’s press service told RIA Novosti. "However, the site owners will not be financially liable for other users' comments."
The ruling follows the introduction of a series of recent legislative measures by the Russian government to control Internet content.
