Publication ban for online commentators is inadmissible

According to the Press Council, editorial offices that refuse to publish the texts of someone or a group of people are in breach of the principle of freedom of information. Editorial offices may and should decide whether to publish individual letters to the editor or internet comments. However, there must be particularly compelling reasons for blocking publication.

The Press Council assessed the complaint of a reader of Südostschweiz. The reader made frequent and sometimes highly critical comments in the newspaper's internet forum. The editor-in-chief rated the posts as "annoying" and "eternally opinionated". Finally
he decided not to publish any further articles by the reader. The reader complained about the ban to the Press Council and also accused Südostschweiz of violating its duty to tell the truth in two articles.

The Press Council denies a violation of the duty to tell the truth. On the other hand, it considers the general publication ban to be a violation of the freedom of information (section 2 of the "Declaration of the duties and rights of journalists"). This is all the more true,
The Press Council states in its statement that this is the case when a medium - such as Südostschweiz - has a regional dominant position.

Even readers' letters and participants in Internet forums - known as "trolls" in Internet jargon - who dominate the discussions in forums with the number of their posts alone, may only be allowed to post on the Internet for particularly weighty reasons.
be excluded.

Editorial offices can restrict access to Internet forums in the same way as on a readers' letters page, for example by imposing strict requirements on content, relevance or quality. The rules for writers of letters to the editor and users of Internet forums should be published. It should be clear to everyone which texts will not be published. The focus should always be on the content of the texts and not on their authors.