{"id":7061,"date":"2021-04-30T10:19:17","date_gmt":"2021-04-30T10:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adf.uk\/?p=7061"},"modified":"2024-01-15T15:16:37","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T14:16:37","slug":"when-a-tweet-can-land-you-in-jail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adfinternational.org\/en-gb\/news\/when-a-tweet-can-land-you-in-jail","title":{"rendered":"When a tweet can land you in jail: Criminal charges brought against Finnish MP"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Finnish Prosecutor General brings three criminal charges against former Minister of the Interior<\/li>\n<li>MP\u00a0prosecuted\u00a0for\u00a0tweeting a Bible\u00a0verse<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>HELSINKI\/ VIENNA<\/strong>\u00a0(30 April) \u2013 Imprisonment for posting a Bible tweet is now a very real possibility in Finland. The Finnish Prosecutor General has brought three criminal charges against Finnish Member of Parliament, P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen. The former Minister of the Interior now faces two years of imprisonment for each alleged crime. The medical doctor, mother of five, and grandmother of six is accused of having engaged in \u201chate speech\u201d for publicly voicing her opinion on marriage and human sexuality in a 2004 pamphlet, for comments made on a 2018 TV show and, most recently, a tweet directed at her church leadership.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI cannot accept that voicing my religious beliefs could mean imprisonment. I do not consider myself guilty of threatening, slandering or insulting anyone. My statements were all based on the Bible\u2019s teachings on marriage and sexuality,\u201d said P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen. \u201cI will defend my right to confess my faith, so that no one else would be deprived of their right to freedom of religion and speech. I hold on to the view that my expressions are legal and they should not be censored. I will not back down from my views. I will not be intimidated into hiding my faith. The more Christians keep silent on controversial themes, the narrower the space for freedom of speech gets.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Criminally charged for voicing\u00a0deeply held\u00a0beliefs\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Police investigations against\u00a0R\u00e4s\u00e4nen started in June 2019.\u00a0As an active member of the\u00a0Finnish Lutheran\u00a0church, she addressed the leadership of her church and questioned its official sponsorship of the LGBT event \u2018Pride 2019\u2019, accompanied by an image of a bible text.\u00a0R\u00e4s\u00e4nen has already attended\u00a0several\u00a0lengthy police interviews about\u00a0her views and\u00a0had to wait over a year for the General Prosecutor to\u00a0decide whether\u00a0to continue with the prosecution.\u00a0That decision\u00a0has now been made and\u00a0ADF International\u00a0will continue\u00a0supporting\u00a0R\u00e4s\u00e4nen\u2019s\u00a0defence\u00a0and the\u00a0right for everyone to freely share their beliefs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFreedom of speech is one\u00a0of the\u00a0cornerstones of democracy.\u00a0The Finnish Prosecutor General\u2019s decision to bring these\u00a0charges against Dr.\u00a0R\u00e4s\u00e4nen\u00a0creates\u00a0a culture of fear and censorship.\u00a0It is sobering that such cases\u00a0are becoming all too common throughout Europe.\u00a0If committed civil servants like P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen are criminally charged\u00a0for voicing their\u00a0deeply held beliefs,\u00a0it creates a chilling effect\u00a0for everyone\u2019s right to speak freely,\u201d said Paul Coleman, Executive Director of ADF International and author of\u00a0Censored: How European Hate Speech Laws are Threatening Freedom of Speech.<\/p>\n<p>R\u00e4s\u00e4nen has served as a Finnish Member of Parliament since 1995, was chair of the Christian Democrats from 2004-2015, and from 2011-2015 she was the Minister of the Interior, during which\u00a0she held responsibility for church affairs in Finland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Imprisonment for posting a Bible tweet is now a very real possibility in Finland. The Finnish Prosecutor General has brought three criminal charges against Finnish Member of Parliament, P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":21176,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[736],"tags":[898],"class_list":["post-7061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-uk-en-gb"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>When a tweet can land you in jail: Criminal charges brought against Finnish MP - ADF International<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/adfinternational.org\/en-gb\/news\/when-a-tweet-can-land-you-in-jail\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When a tweet can land you in jail: Criminal charges brought against Finnish MP\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Imprisonment for posting a Bible tweet is now a very real possibility in Finland. The Finnish Prosecutor General has brought three criminal charges against Finnish Member of Parliament, P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/adfinternational.org\/en-gb\/news\/when-a-tweet-can-land-you-in-jail\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ADF International\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/adfinternational\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-04-30T10:19:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-01-15T14:16:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philipp Bues\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"When a tweet can land you in jail: Criminal charges brought against Finnish MP\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Imprisonment for posting a Bible tweet is now a very real possibility in Finland. 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