GenevaLunch has received a spate of anti-Muslim comments in recent days, linked mainly to articles about fighting in Nigeria between Muslims and Christians. Most have been spam, others have been from individuals who clearly have strong negative feelings about Islam. The policy for comments at GenevaLunch is clearly stated next to the comments box: “We are happy to have your comments, which are approved before they appear: please remember to be courteous and brief. We accept only comments directly related to an article. We do not accept comment spam – messages sent to more than one site. Thank you!”

“Courteous” covers showing respect for other people’s religions, no matter what your own beliefs are. We won’t be publishing any comments that verge in this direction and we’ve removed a couple comments that were dubious and that appear to have prompted more comments along the same lines. The comments space is offered to readers so they can contribute in a positive way to discussions about the news. A good example of this is the large number of comments we had in early January on our articles about luggage lost when Geneva airport baggage handlers went on strike. You can see all these articles and their comments here.

[new tags added 15 July] We’ve known since Barack Obama was elected president that new technology was going to be part of the deal, but even so, it’s surprising to get a press release from the US government saying Obama would like to hear from citizens around the world about his trip to Ghana and his Africa speech. And they certainly have replied! It makes for pretty interesting reading, and I get the feeling that he might even take these remarks into account because the great thing all of this does is make you aware there’s a real human being in the Oval Office.

The technology is not the star here, though: Obama’s administration puts to shame most corporations and certainly other governments, when it comes to using the technology intelligently and effectively. This has been coming through clearly to those of us in Geneva who’ve watched the transformation in recent months of the web site, Facebook and Twitter activities of the US Mission, which stands out for its good use of new technology. As a journalist, I’d have to say they have made my job easier, and other groups looking to push their message would do well to study their example.

The comments, the world map with SMS comments just sent in (my personal favourite), Twitter: search for #obamaghana