Suomessa
kampanjaa koordinoivat Plan Suomi ja Ihmisoikeusliitto ja kampanja avataan
meillä virallisesti huomenna; Euroopan avaushan oli jo viime perjantaina. En
pääse itse huomisiin avajaisiin, mutta käväisin tänään Planin toimistolla ja
pääsin näkemään kampanjavideon ennakkoon. On kivaa päästä tekemään yhteistyötä
myös suomalaisten vastuujärjestöjen ja kampanja-aktivistien kanssa.
***
Hate speech attacks a
particular person or group on the basis of race, ethnicity, nationality, colour,
sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion, opinions or the like.
Finnish legislation condemns for example defamation, illegal threat and
incitement to ethnic or racial hatred but not all hate speech.
The first thing that crosses
my mind thinking of Finland and hate speech are the so called immigration
critics. Criticising Finland’s immigration policy as well as the immigrants
coming to Finland (and often also Finland’s ethnic minorities, sexual
minorities etc.) is one of the main issues on the agenda of our fourth biggest
political party Perussuomalaiset (True Finns).
Since they started courting
voters during the local elections (2008) and European Parliament election (2009)
by criticising Finland’s rumouredly loose immigration policy other politicians
also started to harden their opinions and comments on immigration.
In reality many of the
statements of these critics are purely racist. They often appeal to their
freedom of speech but can’t handle any kind of critique themselves. They also
plead to their unawareness or use the Just kidding! -card easily.
Some of the members or
politicians of True Finns have been convicted of hate speech crimes. Many have connections
to aggressive nationalist and fascist movements.
The distance from violent
words to violent deeds often isn’t too long. We need to fight hate speech in
order to fight hatred.
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