Delfi (occasionally capitalized as DELFI) is a news website in

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, an ...

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

, and

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

providing daily news, ranging from gardening to politics. It ranks as one of the most popular websites among Baltic users. Delfi operates in the respective Baltic countries under the

domain names A domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. ...

delfi.ee, delfi.lv, and delfi.lt. Aside from versions in the

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also * ...

, Latvian, and Lithuanian languages, the company offers

Russian language Russian (russian: русский язык, russkij jazyk, link=no, ) is an East Slavic language mainly spoken in Russia. It is the native language of the Russians, and belongs to the Indo-European language family. It is one of four living E ...

versions of its portal in all three countries. On 12 March 2012, Delfi started a Polish version under pl.delfi.lt. A year later an English version was added under en.delfi.lt. In March 2014 delfi.ua version was closed. In February 2016, most of the delfi.lt English-language version content were placed under a

paywall A paywall is a method of restricting access to content, with a purchase or a paid subscription, especially news. Beginning in the mid-2010s, newspapers started implementing paywalls on their websites as a way to increase revenue after years of ...

to restrict access to most articles without a paid subscription, as the articles in this version of Delfi are supported by the

Lithuania Tribune Lithuania Tribune is an online news portal providing news about Lithuania in English (and for a few years in Mandarin). It caters to foreigners with business and diplomatic interests in Lithuania, as well as the Lithuanian diaspora. Partnershi ...

, which raised questions on implementing the paywall there. It is unknown if other language editions will be implementing the paywall.

Company development

Delfi was established in 1999 by the Estonian company MicroLink and sold in 2003 to the Norwegian company

Findexa Eniro Aktiebolag, AB is a Nordic countries, Nordic tech company that helps small and medium-sized companies with digital marketing. Eniro also has a search service that aggregates, filters and presents information to help individuals find and come ...

. In 2007 Estonian media group

Ekspress Grupp Ekspress Grupp is an Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Swe ...

acquired 100% of Delfi stocks for €54m. It operates under a single name in the three Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia, and also in

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...

. It has its own bureau in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

Kaliningrad Kaliningrad ( ; rus, Калининград, p=kəlʲɪnʲɪnˈɡrat, links=y), until 1946 known as Königsberg (; rus, Кёнигсберг, Kyonigsberg, ˈkʲɵnʲɪɡzbɛrk; rus, Короле́вец, Korolevets), is the largest city and ...

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...

, and

Stockholm Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropo ...

. It also sources its news reports from the

Baltic News Service The Baltic News Service (BNS) is the largest news agency operating in the Baltic states. Founded in April, 1990, by a group of students (the founding CEO was Allan Martinson), it sought to inform foreign correspondents in Moscow of development ...

and from wire services.

Freedom of speech

Because visitors of Delfi can anonymously comment on every news story, this site generates debates over

freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...

in the Baltic States. Some members of the Estonian and Lithuanian Parliaments have proposed laws making Delfi and other news portals responsible for the contents of anonymous comments. In September 2006, attorneys of

Artūras Zuokas Artūras Zuokas (born 21 February 1968) is a Lithuanian politician. He is the Chairman of the political party Lithuanian Freedom Union. He was the Mayor of Vilnius from 2000 to 2007 and again from 2011 to 2015. From 2008 to 2009 he was a member ...

, the mayor for

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urba ...

, asked public prosecutors to seize Delfi servers and reveal the

IP address An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...

es of all anonymous commentators that have written comments about him in several Delfi publications. In June 2015, the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that ...

ruled in '' Delfi AS v. Estonia'' that holding delfi.ee responsible for its readers' comments did not violate the

European Convention on Human Rights The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is an international convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by ...

' protection of freedom of speech.

Patron of the University of Latvia

Since 2018, Delfi has been a bronze patron of the University of Latvia Foundation. Support is granted to students of Communication science of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Latvia, as well as other students of Communication and Journalism in all Latvian higher education institutions. In 2018, the first scholarships in the amount of 10,000 EUR was awarded. Delfi is an internet partner and supporter of the social scholarship "Ceļamaize 2009".

References

{{Reflist

Sources

Internet portals in the Baltic States: legal issues
by Liutauras Ulevičius

External links

The Delfi web portal for Estonia

The Delfi web portal for Latvia

The Delfi web portal for Lithuania
Mass media companies of Lithuania Latvian news websites Lithuanian news websites 1999 establishments in Lithuania Estonian news websites Russian-language websites