By Enrique Tessieri
It is a positive sign that more politicians and organizations like the Council for Mass Media (JSN) are finally taking a strong stance against hate speech and racism that is rife on the net. These types of opinions, usually done anonymously and on sites like Hommaforum, Scripta and others, resemble racist peeping Toms writing graffiti on public toilet walls.
Some guidelines have to be put in place but the question is if they will bite. The JSN will make public its new recommendations on September 5.
“Hate speech was included in the guidelines, ” said JSN chairperson Risto Uimonen. “It would have been odd after what happened in Norway if we would not have done so.”
For too long the Finnish media, too many politicians and the public at large have shown a remarkable lack of leadership with respect to the rising hate speech and popularity of parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS). It seems that the majority of our best leaders and most enlightened citizens are ready to forfeit our values for hate speech.
Why have politicians reacted so late? Have they become more tolerant to immigrants or does it only hinge on Norway and how mass killer Anders Breivik was a serious wakeup call?
Migrant Tales predicted after the tragic events that gripped Norway at the hands of a mass killer on July 22 that a major watershed was crossed. The new JSN guidelines and less tolerance for hate speech have put parties like the PS on the defensive. The Norwegian Labor Party, for example, is expected to make big gains in next month’s the municipal election at the cost of the anti-immigration Fremskrittspartiet, of which Anders Breivik was a member.
A social ill like racism is no light matter. If it were up to the likes of PS MP Halla-aho and his cronies, immigrants would suffer the same exclusion that the Romany have endured in Finland for hundreds of years.
We cannot let something like that to happen ever again.
The sooner Finns can distinguish between racism and constructive criticism on issues like immigration policy, the faster we will be able to put this social ill on the defensive.
“The new JSN guidelines and less tolerance for hate speech have put parties like the PS on the defensive”
A poll taken after Norway have soon that PS are still the biggest party so why do they need to go on the defensive. If anything what happened in Norway was more a watershed for yourself more than PS.
Because the first poll taken after Norway would show if what happened in Norway would have a effect on support for PS (which it did not).
So if a massacre of mainly young people does not turn people against PS, then using words like “Hate speech” or “Racist” will not be effective in anyway shape or form does that now show that you have reached a watershed more than PS,Because now even you must admit that your blog has not had any effect in stopping the support PS.
Its people like like yourself who are more on the defensive as you need to justify your purpose in a country in which no one in huge numbers really seems to be listening to you. ‘
Do not take it personally but the growing PS support proves my blog to be right
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–Its people like like yourself who are more on the defensive as you need to justify your purpose in a country in which no one in huge numbers really seems to be listening to you. ‘
As far as I am concerned, I am proud of this blog and the people who have helped turn it into a voice. Migrant Tales is a blog that debates some of the salient issues facing the immigrant and minority community in Finland. It aims to be a voice for those whose views and situation are understood poorly and heard faintly by the media, politicians and public. In this we have succeeded well beyond our expectations.
Enrique Enrique… “These types of opinions, usually done anonymously and on sites like Hommaforum, Scripta and others, ”
So you are tellling that Jussi Halla-aho anonymously writes Scripta? There is probably kansalaisopisto courses about internet, go one.
“The new JSN guidelines and less tolerance for hate speech have put parties like the PS on the defensive.”
I dont know any PS papers where you can comment so what JSN has to do with PS?