Radio station site degrades from forums to blogs over "Nazi slurs"

The forum of the Echo of Moscow radio website has been forced to close. Echo of Moscow editor-in-chief Aleksey Venediktov says the forum needs moderating in view of the numerous nationalistically colored messages, but there is nobody available to moderate the forum on a voluntary basis. Radio station representative Aleksandr Pliushchev adds that the website will develop "more modern" forms of communication with visitors, such as blogs. Blog owners – Echo of Moscow journalists – will be responsible for moderating their blogs. The question is just how much democracy will be allowed by this scheme. Echo of Moscow radio likes to talk about its freedom of speech, and forums seem to be a better symbol of it rather than moderated blogs.