Reykjavík Grapevine - 10.03.2017, Page 10

Words
PAUL
FONTAINE
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A SUBJECT OF HEATED DISCUS-
SION in Icelandic news lately has been
freedom of expression. Here in Iceland,
as in other parts of the world, “free-
dom of expression” is often confused
with “freedom from criticism,” often by
those who stress the importance of free-
dom of expression most of all.
Case in point: the radio station Út-
varp Saga. Many of our readers will
already be familiar with the call-in
portion of their programming, Línan
er laus (in English: “The line is open”),
wherein the country’s bigots call in to
gripe about foreigners in general. They
seem to focus on Muslims in particular,
and how liberal views are destroying
the fabric of our society. If you regularly
take the city bus, you might have found
yourself forced to listen to the awful
opinions belched forth on this show,
whether you like it or not.
To Iceland’s credit, both the show
and its hosts, Pétur Gunnlaugsson and
Árnþrúður Karlsdóttir, are regularly
criticised elsewhere in the media and
society for being unrepentantly racist
and for spreading the kind of misinfor-
mation that gave rise to such phenom-
enon as the now-mostly-disappeared
Icelandic National Front. But each and
every time Pétur and company are met
with such criticism, their response is al-
ways the same: that they have a right to
freedom of expression in this country.
The fragile Mr.
Gunnlaugsson
However, in Iceland, like many other
countries, freedom of expression has
its legal limitations, too. In particular,
Article 233(a) of the Penal Code states:
"Anyone who in a ridiculing, slanderous,
insulting, threatening or any other man-
ner publicly assaults [in this context, this
refers to verbal assault as well as physical]
a person or a group of people on the basis
of their nationality, skin colour, race, reli-
gion or sexual orientation, shall be fined
or jailed for up to 2 years."
As such, Pétur recently found him-
self on the receiving end of a court
injunction for inciting hate speech,
following remarks a caller made in
regards to the LGBT community in
Iceland. The Reykjavík District Court
ultimately dismissed the case, which
Pétur was quick to celebrate, declaring
that the entire complaint had been “a
political campaign” against him, most
notably saying:
“It is very bad
when the justice
system in Iceland
is in the hands of
political people
who abuse the system for the sole
purpose of trying to slam an individ-
ual who has opinions they don’t like.”
This remark is very telling in light of
what would happen next.
Gunnar Waage, a blogger who runs
the website Sandkassinn, regularly
hands out a satirical award called “The
Poop of the Month” to those individuals
Gunnar deems worthy of being called a
poop, i.e. a reprehensible person. One
month, Pétur was bestowed this award.
His response? He tried to sue someone
who shared Gunnar Waage’s award post
on Facebook—thus using the court sys-
tem to slam someone whose opinions he
doesn’t like.
Pétur’s complaint was also dis-
missed by the court, and he was made to
pay for the accused’s legal costs. Icelan-
dic courts have consistently ruled that
opinions are protected under freedom
of expression; accusations, especially
of criminal activity, are not. And at the
time of this writing, being a poop is not
a crime. However, the case shows how
Icelanders have a complicated relation-
ship with freedom of expression.
For example: for as much as Iceland
touts its liberal principles, we had blas-
phemy laws on the books until 2015, and
people have been fined for blasphemy
in the past (although this law was sel-
dom enforced in modern times). Pétur
is also far from the only person to have
been charged with hate speech. Similar
charges have been filed against conser-
vative Christians such as Snorri Bertel
and Jens Valur, who have been outspo-
ken in their distaste for homosexuals
and Muslims, respectively.
On social media, Icelanders seem
to fall into two
camps where
these cases are
concerned: those
who absolutely
support free-
dom of expression (most vocally, when
it concerns the rights of bigots to be
publicly bigoted; they tend to be all but
silent when minorities speak up, oddly
enough), and those who believe that
hate speech is a real thing that amounts
to bullying or violence against the mar-
ginalised. Calling hate speech “bully-
ing” strikes a chord with many Iceland-
ers; public schools have run concerted
campaigns against bullying for many
years now. How can we teach children
to stand up against bullying, they say,
when we allow adults to do it to each
other? Countering this, free speech
absolutists contend that critics are the
ones who are bullying; that their criti-
cisms and injunctions amount to si-
lencing tactics and censorship.
Ultimately, this seems to be some-
thing the courts will always have
to decide on a case by case basis,
where the legal world is concerned.
In daily life, freedom of expression
is demonstrably alive and well in Ice-
land: the freedom to say what you
want, as well as the freedom of oth-
ers to call you a poop for saying it.
OPINION
The Freedom To Call
Someone A Poop
The Comedy Ban
of 1940
LIKE MOST COUNTRIES, Iceland
has a long and illustrious history
of censorship. A fun example can
be found in the annals of 1940,
when chief of police Agnar Kofod-
Hansen announced that after
having spoken to witnesses who
had attended the dress rehearsal
of the play ‘Stundum og stundum
ekki (“Sometimes and sometimes
not”), he had decided that the play
was not fit for production and
would be banned. The expert wit-
nesses included a former bank
clerk and a couple of doctors.
The Reykjavik City Theatre called
for a new review, and staged a
new run-through for a new expert
panel, which included three gov-
ernment administrators, a judge
and a principal. Only one of these,
the principal, called for a ban. The
chief of police relented and the
premiere was allowed to proceed.
But what was it that so angered the
authorities? Perhaps the clue is to
be found in the review published
in the newspaper Morgunblaðið.
There, it said that the play was
set in the Prime Minister’s office,
and portrayed the horse-trading
of high posts among loyal party
members, their extramarital af-
fairs, and so on. The review con-
cluded that even though the play
was harsh, it was probably not very
far from reality.
- Valur Gunnarsson
BLAST FROM THE PAST
“Being a poop
is not a crime”
10 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 03 — 2017
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