In Norway, we've had a massive debate over the last couple of days about who's responsible for the content published in the comments following stories in online media. I won't bother you with links, since they're mostly in Norwegian, but the short version is as follows: On the web site of Norwegian daily Agderposten's discussion forum, rumors of highly sexual nature about soccer player and former Liverpool pro Stig Inge Bjornebye were circulating. The rumors were false, but were accessible for a long time. Today, Agderposten was found guilty by the PFU, the Norwegian press' watchdog organization.

The case has raised some interesting questions: Are newspapers responsible for content published on their web sites? Should newspapers censor this content? Should everything published on the internet be censored? If so, who should do this? And is it possible?

First of all, it isn't possible, as far as I'm concerned. If I want to publish something, I can. If not on the newspaper's web sites, then on blogs or discussion sites in other countries.

Ironically, several newspaper editors have called for some kind of censorship of comments. Maybe it's my background from an American university, but freedom of speech is an incredibly important value for me. In fact, just the word "censorship" scares me, and ignites nightmares of Soviet regimes from the past. Of course, a lot of countries censor web sites today, but I would not like to compare any of them to Norway, a liberal, western, educated country.

So who is responsible for content? How about making the content providers themselves responsible? I can't remember the last time I wrote a comment anonymously, and I think that's the trend. Anonymous sources have never been regarded as credible sources, and they won't be in the future either. Besides, whatever I write is what I mean, so why wouldn't I put my name on it? If someone publishes something false, charge them with the applicable law. But censoring content is definitely uncalled for, as well as technically impossible without turning into a communication dictatorship.