Perhaps there is hope for Iceland

Icelandic journalist's "hatespeech" acquittal is a victory for free speech.

Páll Vilhjálmsson, journalist.

Icelandic journalist Páll Vilhjálmsson has been acquitted of a charge brought by the Reykjavík Chief of Police for “hate speech” against the Samtökin 78 (The National Queer Organisation of Iceland.)

The verdict has not yet been published on the Reykjavík District Court’s website, so we do not know the judge’s basis for the acquittal, but the fact that the charge made its way to the Court in the first place should be a chilling reminder to Icelanders about the state of their free speech rights.

Mr. Vilhjálmsson was charged for these statements:

1. “Samtökin 78 [S78] is an umbrella organization and a lifestyle association for adults interested in pornography, sex, gender ideology, and the seduction of children.”

2. “The teaching material [for which the Icelandic government paid the organization 25 million ISK last year to distribute to Icelandic school children as young as five] is seduction disguised as information. Children’s innate sense of modesty is systematically broken down. Children are made receptive to participation in sexual activities, even violent sexual activities – BDSM. Confused and insecure children are less well equipped to resist adults with questionable intentions. That’s what the seduction is about.”

With the steadfast support of nearly all the country’s political parties, the Icelandic state has granted this ideological special interest group multiple permissions to trample on citizens’ speech freedoms, most importantly in the form of a penal code provision that allows these Luxury Citizens to persecute people for undefined and undefinable conduct – “hate speech” – and have them sentenced to fines and up to two years in prison. So great is the love of Iceland’s political parties for this organization that to ensure its members can sit in peace and quiet while they monitor citizens’ speech, the Icelandic state gave them 97 million ISK of taxpayers’ money last year.

S78 claims to be an “interest group for queer people in Iceland,” but they are primarily an ideological and political special interest organization opposed to free speech. The Icelandic state, which has expelled the National Lutheran state church from the country’s schools, should ensure that the same applies to S78 and all other ideological organizations. The state’s policy of granting privileges and special rights to S78’s privileged citizens through punitive laws, taxpayer funds, and police power is an intolerable human rights violation against Icelandic citizens.

Not a single journalist from Icelandic media bothered to attend the announcement of the verdict today, but we know how much they care about free speech; the country’s media, which constantly shove activist propaganda down the public’s throats, are incapable of fulfilling even the basic duties of their profession.

The prosecutor in the case, Silja Rán Arnarsdóttir, claimed that Vilhjálmsson had mocked, slandered, and humiliated a vulnerable minority group and should face punishment, either a fine or imprisonment, stating that “‘middle-aged men who go insane at the keyboard’ must face deserved consequences, financial penalties, and imprisonment.”

S78’s lawyer, Kristrún Elsa Harðardóttir, concluded her complaint against Vilhjálmsson by pointing out that “a violation of Article 233a of the Penal Code is subject to prosecution without the request of the person who was wronged…”

I thank Ms. Harðardóttir for this reminder and must say that, on behalf of Vilhjálmsson and “middle-aged men,” I feel “mocked, slandered, and humiliated…” by the prosecutor’s choice of words. I am therefore considering filing a complaint against her for “hate speech.”