Sunday, December 7, 2008

My interview on free speech in Latvia on Swedish Radio (in Swedish)

Swedish Radio' s media program Publicerat' s producer and host Åke Pettersson called me on December 5 and did a phone interview in Swedish about the attacks on free speech in Latvia. He apparently picked up the information, among other sources, from this blog, to which he kindly put up a link. Those of you who understand Swedish (as spoken by Åke) and svartskallesvenska (Swedish with a bit of an immigrant accent :) as spoken by me) can listen to the program (dated December 7) on the internet here. 

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Es saprotu, ka tas nekā neattaisno Latvijas varas iestādes, un ka tās ir tuvāk, bet vienkārši patrāpījās viens īpaši kliedzošs piemērs, kas ilustrē idomu, ka Latvija, diemžēl, ir daļa no vispārējas tendences...

"A PUB landlord has hit out after being arrested on suspicion of committing a racially-aggravated public order offence.

Police swooped on Peter Mailer's premises, the Black Bull Hotel in Warkworth, last Tuesday, following a formal complaint over newspaper clippings, political cartoons and other items displayed on his bar-room walls.

Mr Mailer, who admits he is an active supporter of the British National Party..."


No: http://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk

Lai veicas Latvijas varas turēšanā rāmjos.

Anonymous said...

You are mentioned on Pro Libertate Nostra: http://tegis.wordpress.com/2008/12/10/latvia-wrestles-with-freedom-of-speech/

Väldigt bra blogg du har tycker jag. Fast du borde inte skriva "svartskallesvenska" :). Det är sådant fult ord tycker jag :S.
Ha det bra.
MvH
Calle
tegis.wordpress.com

Bleveland said...

The interview with Juris begins at 1 min 5 sec after the program starts and lasts about 7-8 minutes (to be exact until 7:44).

Latvia is not the only country were opinions are repressed by authorities. For instance, here in Sweden, just try to give a critical opinion on the Swedish migration politics over the past 20 years... I repeat the politics, not the people that actually came here.

The current situation in Latvia is more obvious and methods might seem more brute, but in essence it is the same thing.

Remember we are speaking "free speech" here and not "right or wrong".
Smirnovs might be wrong as h*ll, but that doesn't disqualify him from his rights.

By the way, I would say "svartskallesvenska" (literally "black skull Swedish") is very innocent and I would certainly not urge you to avoid using the word. Not because the word is so innocent, but again for the sake of "freedom of speech". Having said that, it would be politically correct to advice you to -indeed- not use that word again ;-)

So hereby...

...not!

Bleveland said...

Some Latvians still have very romantic ideas of Sweden in their mind...
Well, maybe it is better to get from the rain into the drop?

Appeal to Sweden Petition