Andžela Armonienė, senior specialist at the Office of the Inspector of Journalist Ethics, believes that we should primarily speak about changes in this regard.
"According to specialists and assessors, we should take into account all evolution processes. First of
all, the internet itself has changed. Earlier it was used in a more static way: people were browsing, copying and pasting information, printing it out, reading.
Nowadays, the Internet has become interactive, its content is created by users themselves by sharing information among them. We have found ourselves in a situation when the majority of internet content is created by other actors than the media representatives."
'Defi' was among the first portals in Lithuania to allow users post comments related to published articles. The portal was also the first to introduce special filters on such posts. Aistė Žilinskienė, Communication Manager at the Internet portal 'Delfi', expands on the style of their portal's work as regards posting and filtering personal users' comments.
"In general, offensive comments are not so frequent, although I would say we get a lot of them. About 10 thousand comments are posted on the 'Delfi' portal daily and only several percent of them are deleted. Offensive, unethical and harmful comments are always carefully analysed."
Aistė Žilinskienė from 'Delfi' also explains how unacceptable comments are eliminated and what way special filters work.
"We apply several measures. One of them has been installed a rather long time ago – they are automatic filters that search for uncensored words, swearwords and similar things. They are automatically deleted from the list of comments on a topic.
'Delfi' also applies other special preventive measures like reminding its portal readers that they are responsible for their own opinions. Our latest innovation introduced quite recently was two additional buttons at each comment. By pressing them, readers themselves can not only read, but also evaluate somebody else's comments. They can mark a comment as a "good" or an "unacceptable" post."
The 'Delfi' portal is conducting an initiative for ethical expression of opinions on the internet. Aistė Žilinskienė tells us more about it.
"About a year ago, when we launched the campaign 'Do Not Turn the Air Blue', there were about 40 portals and specialized internet websites that joined in. All the portals participating in the campaign, encouraged their readers sign with their real names. We believe that when signing off with a real name, a person is much more ethical as regards his or her comments," Aistė Žilinskienė, Communication Manager at the Internet portal 'Delfi', says.