Websites are legally responsible for libellous anonymous postings, European Court of Human Rights’ judges ruled on Thursday when it rejected a case taken by an Estonian publisher successfully sued for defamation. Delfi AS, one of the biggest Internet news websites in Estonia, published a story in January 2006 about a ferry company’s decision to change some of its routes – which led to damage to ice-floes used by motorists in deepest winter. The ferry company sued Delfi, with an Estonian court finding in June 2008 that the comments made by readers had been defamatory and that Delfi was responsible...The [European Court of Human Rights] found that the Estonian court’s ruling had been ‘a justified and proportionate restriction’ on Delfi’s right to freedom of expression, especially because the comments about the ferry company had been highly offensive...[Index on Censorship] describ[ed] the ruling as ‘alarming’...