Recent articles in the Estonian language pages of this paper have dealt with censorship of reader posted comments in the internet edition. In particular, concern has been expressed about some who may have made inappropriate remarks, usually personal attacks, taking advantage of their anonymity.

Some have considered whether reader-posted comments should only be allowed where the writer identifies him or herself with an e-mail address - either in the comments themselves, or only to the webmaster. One on hand, censorship is inappropriate in an open and free society, but on the other there should be reasonable limits as to what is permissible.

The problem, of course, is what is permissible in these circumstances. In the past newspapers could at least look to jurisprudence for guidance, but as with most issues involving freedom of expression on the internet, most justice systems are still in the horse and buggy age, and the issue of what responsibility web masters bear to exercise due diligence in these circumstances remains murky at best.

I personally am against censorship except in the most egregious situations. I really don’t recall having seen any of these, but then, I spent most of this summer at the lake, where I don’t have internet access. It may be that the webmaster has been catching these comments immediately. On occasion, I have had the odd reader take me to task in a manner some might consider as personal attack, but invariably they take their due from other readers, or better, are completely ignored. The process to my mind is healthy, since it promotes open dialogue on contentious issues which need to be aired.

Readership of the electronic pages appears to be much more varied than that of regular subscribers. From the comments posted, the electronic version seems to be drawing readers from the general population everywhere and in particular some from the fatherland. It is unfortunate that one gets a real sense of “us” and “them” from some of these comments, but it is really hard to determine how widespread these feelings are. In all probability, what remains of our Canadian Estonian Diaspora hardly registers as a blip on the consciousness of most in the fatherland. If you want proof of this, do a quick search on either of the two major Estonian newspapers on-line, to see what has been written about us in the last few years.

One of the advantages of these postings to me has been that I have been able to get in contact with several people through e-mail. For those of us in the hinterlands, outside easy driving distance of the GTA this is nice, especially when I can easily avail myself of the wealth of knowledge that the older generation has acquired through experience. In particular I was able to get some help from a fellow contributor who kindly helped me with language. One posting mentioning my name had the phrase “no ladna”. I was somewhat embarrassed to realize that my parents had not taught me this, but then again, I was raised in dated rural Saaremaa dialect. Turned out that it wasn’t anything bad, so “no ladna” to the readership in Estonia - or wherever.

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