Media groups throughout Europe could legally face fines for allowing users to post abusive comments on their websites, following a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

The judgement in Strasbourg was given after the Estonian media group Delfi appealed a €320 (£230) fine from the Estonian government for comments containing "personal threats and offensive language" on an article about SLK Ferries from 2006.

The piece in question alleged that SLK had prevented the building of "ice roads" which provide an alternative mode of travel to some of Estonia’s islands during the winter when waterways freeze over.

By altering its ferry routes SLK was said to have broken ice that could have been fashioned into the ice roads, which prompted messages in the article insulting and wishing injury on the owner of SLK, whose name was redacted from the court’s judgement.

Delfi failed to remove the comments for six weeks despite the request from SLK that it do so, which later led to the company being found responsible for the messages, which were held as defamatory by an Estonian court in June 2008.

This was despite the fact the messages were posted without being vetted by a moderator, in what is common practice on many news websites across Europe.

Following the judgement Delfi appealed to the Estonian Supreme Court, which upheld the verdict, and later to the ECHR on the grounds that the ruling had violated the right to freedom of speech under the European Convention.

However Strasbourg ruled that news portals like Delfie had to assume "’duties and responsibilities’ as provided for in domestic legislation" and protect the reputation and honour of individuals under the right to privacy that is also guaranteed in the convention.

"Therefore, Article 10 of the Convention [which protects free speech] cannot be interpreted as prohibiting member states from imposing obligations on news portals such as Delfi when they allow readers to write comments that are made public," the verdict concluded.

Urmo Soonvald, the editor-in-chief of Delfi, argued that freedom of speech had taken in a hit in the wake of the verdict.

However David Banks, a media law expert, wrote on Twitter: "[I] don’t really think judgement in Delfi v Estonia has much impact for news sites [in UK] who usually assume liability occurs if [they] fail to remove [offending posts].

"I think sites that should really worry about Delfi v Estonia are Facebook, Twitter, Google, who are all too slow to remove, even on notice."