"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear"
George Orwell
The power of the tech giants over us and our lives today far exceeds the power of the state: they decide de facto what we must hear, what we must say, what is truth and what is a lie, what is to be promoted and who, and what, may be criticized.
One would think that the Danish government would loudly protest against Communist China's attack on Hong Kong citizens' democratic rights, and go to the breech for the region's brave and peaceful pro-democracy movement - but nothing could be further from the “mind” of the Danish government: one does not want to go up against the Chinese regime. So little so, that they haven’t even wanted to meet Ted Hui out of fear of provoking China.
Soon, it will be social media and social media alone that, despite the Constitution, defines what is desired and what is undesired attitudes/content and utterances based on their unpredictable and often secret criteria. There are no legislators or practitioners who have yet seriously challenged their power. Therefore, we must keep protesting loudly when the tech giants violate our constitutional right to speak out without being censored.
It has never been part of a free and open democracy that its citizens cannot move freely and that certain sections of the population must be protected from the violent attacks of other groups, and that central institutions must be guarded. It has never been a viable recipe for a well-functioning democracy
"With your quiet perseverance and insistence on spreading awareness of developments in Sweden, you have just shown the fearlessness and uncompromisingness that makes you an obvious recipient of the Sapphop Prize, and we look forward to presenting you with the award today..."
(photo: Steen Raaschou)
On September 20th - the day after being presented the Sappho Award 2020 - Gunnar Sandelin gave this interview to Aia Fog, Chairman of The Free Press Society.
The ECRI monitors the 47 European Council of Europe member states, and publishes reports with recommendations on what each country should do to combat racism and discrimination. The ECRI does not have a popular mandate, and their influence leads to restrictions on freedom of expression.
It is odd that the Jewish Society, which has obviously put a lot of work into documenting abuses against Danish Jews, refuses to come and talk about the problems, when we in the FPS reacts to the information by arranging a public debate on anti-Semitism in the hope of shining a light on the issue.
The powefuld, left-wing editor and journalist Ezra Klein´s tweet, and the open letter of 100 liberal writer to Harper´s Magazine, illustrate that identity politics has now become so totalitarian that it also affects its own followers
The question is why do strong forces in politics, in tech giants and in the state-paid media at home relate to a racist, leftist and revolutionary organization like Black Lives Matter in Denmark with opinions that range between uncritical reverence to direct and active support?
Freedom of expression is under tremendous strain. Nationally and globally, writers, artists and politicians are threatened upon their lives and/or with their livelihoods, or sued in court for expressing particular views. Fear, self-censorship and oppressive anti-defamation laws are in the process of undermining our main liberty: Freedom of expression.
The Free Press Society’s freedom of expression prize, the Sappho Award, is awarded to a person who has shown uncompromising courage in the struggle for the free word.
