Restricting free speech to combat online harassment: a risky compromise
(World News Austria)

The growing phenomenon of online attacks against journalists - which include threats, insults and smear campaigns as a means of silencing them and challenging their credibility in the public arena - has escalated the perceived tension between the protection of media freedom as a precondition for independent journalism and calls for strong tools to limit the dissemination of hateful and harassing comments on social media. New laws with a clear potential to limit free speech, such as rules scrapping anonymity or mandating the removal of private companies without judicial oversight, are often presented as necessary remedies to counter online harassment, with little appreciation of the...