The Prime Minister of Sweden seems to be pretty lackadaisical about Freedom of Speech if this lady had an opportunity to resign from office instead of being publicly tossed out on her behind:
Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds quit on Tuesday after a row over the closure of a Web site with cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, embarrassing Prime Minister Goran Persson six months ahead of elections.
Social Democrat (SDP) leader Persson, behind in polls that favour the conservative opposition in September's vote, had for months resisted calls to sack the unpopular minister over her response to the Asian tsunami, in which 500 Swedes died.
But she was forced to resign when it was revealed this week that she had not given full information about her role in the closure of a site belonging to a far-right political party which published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad offensive to Muslims.
"Under the current circumstances I find it impossible to conduct my work and therefore choose to resign," Freivalds said at a joint news conference with the prime minister.
"It was her own decision," said Persson, who had criticised a junior foreign ministry official for putting pressure on a private internet hosting company to close the Web site belonging to an anti-immigrant Swedish political party.
Such pressure violates constitutional guarantees of free speech. Freivalds originally said she did not know her ministry had contacted the company, but documents published this week in the Swedish media proved that she had been informed.
Freedom of Speech isn't about guaranteeing people's right to talk about the innocuous.
This is why I have trouble with the topic of "European values." We're using the same terms, but they have different meanings.
Posted by floridacracker at March 22, 2006 03:14 AM