Posted on January 20, 2010

Finland Continues to Suppress the Freedom of Speech

Henrik Holappa, Google Groups, January 19, 2010

The Finnish Department of Justice is planning on suppressing the freedom of speech in Finland–now even more. The special legal group of the Department of Justice is now planning the new blueprints of the law that would especially focus on so called “Internet Racism”.

The major newspaper in Finland, Helsingin Sanomat, reported of the suggested plan on their websites here.

According to the new law suggestion, just clicking yourself on the alleged “racist” or “white supremacist” website (whether it is David Duke’s, the Resistance Movement’s websites or any other prominent white’s civil rights movement’s website) that would be enough to sentence a Finnish citizen to 4 years in prison. I emphasize–just visiting a racist website would be enough to sentence someone to 4 years in prison.

According to the Department of Justice–this new law would tremendously prevent racism in Finland, as it was mentioned, especially on Internet.

Probably one reason behind the new law suggestion leads to the shooting rampage in Espoo, a city near Helsinki, that took place on the New Year’s eve. The suspected shooter, Ibrahim Shkupolli,–originated from Kosovo, shot 4 at the shopping mall and later on that day Shkupolli shot himself. Before the shooting took place at the shopping mall, he had shot his former Finnish girlfriend. The event stimulated among the Finnish citizens the discussion about the uncontrolled mass-immigration, which the Finnish government considered racist.

The special legal group of the Finnish government’s Department of Justice would like to add a new paragraph to the law in their struggle against the racism. The law would carry a name of “Aggravated incitement for Racial Hatred”, and the maximum sentence of the crime would be 4 years in prison. The law could be used in various cases–as an additional charge–such as; “incitement for mass-destruction” and for a slaying made on a terrorist purpose.

One can only guess what “incitement for mass-destruction” may really mean. In Spain, for example, just denying the Holocaust–or simply questioning it–it is considered as “incitement for mass-destruction.” The Holocaust denial law does not exist in Finland, but several other existing anti-racist laws could be used in a way that an individual could be sentenced of an alleged Holocaust denial.

The current law of incitement for racial hatred allows a person to be sentenced to maximum of 2 years in prison. Of course the government and the legal system may use both legal paragraphs–incitement for racial hatred and aggravated incitement for racial hatred–to sentence an individual to a maximum sentence of 6 years in prison, including using several other legal paragraphs–such as violation of freedom of speech and in some cases even aggravated defamation–combined together in one sentence.

However, if the law is being executed as such, it would literally mean the following; an individual visits on a racist website and leaves a comment on the discussion board–he has already committed two serious crimes; incitement for racial hatred and possibly violation of freedom of speech.

However, always when a foreigner is being a victim of any crime, the police investigation leaves from the allegation it was racially motivated crime. This explains the statistical growth of the racist crimes in Finland, but it does not prove that all crimes in which a foreign individual has been a victim of a crime would have been committed on a racist purpose.

The new law would also make it possible to punish certain groups of individuals that may share a common racialist view, whether they share it publicly or in different discussion forums on Internet. If the law would be taken in use in that way, it may possibly mean the arrests and convictions of hundreds or even thousands of Finns in the near future.

The Freedom of Speech in Finland would be tremendously restricted, just in a next few months. This would force the Finnish nationals to be silent about the harms of the multicultural society. That what will be the new definition of racism, may only be guessed, but the every-day racism, violence and even deaths committed against the Finns will not probably be recognized by the new law exchange.