Delfi operates in the respective Baltic countries under the domain names Delfi.ee, Delfi.lv, and Delfi.lt. Aside from versions in the Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian languages, the company offers Russian language versions of its portal in all three countries. In Lithuania, Delfi is the most popular portal, and also one of the three main internet news portals.

Company development

Delfi was established by the Estonian company MicroLink and sold in 2003 to the Norwegian company Findexa. It operates under a single name in the three Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia, and also in Ukraine. It has its own bureaux in Moscow, Kaliningrad, Warsaw, and Stockholm. It also sources its news reports from the Baltic News Service and from wire services.

Freedom of speech

Because visitors of Delfi can comment on every news story, this site constantly is in the centre of debates over freedom of speech 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, the controversial mayor of Vilnius, asked public prosecutors to seize Delfi servers and reveal the IP addresses of all anonymous commentators that have written comments about him in several Delfi publications.

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