Vaguely worded hate-speech laws can turn widely held beliefs into criminal speech.
Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen stands on criminal trial today for sending a tweet. Less than 280 characters may amount to two years in jail.
Räsänen is a long-serving politician. She was the first female chairperson of her party, the Finnish Christian Democrats, and a former minister of the interior. She is now a grandmother of seven. She is officially being prosecuted for the crime of ‘ethnic agitation’, under the section of ‘war crimes and crimes against humanity’ in the Finnish criminal code. What on Earth did she say that caused such an extraordinary legal response? Did she encourage acts of terrorism against her own country? Did she marvel at the atrocities of Stalin?
