Finland’s Supreme Court held an oral hearing on October 30th, in the long-running trial of Member of Parliament Päivi Räsänen. The eight-term Christian MP was charged with incitement against a group of people, following her tweet with a Bible verse questioning the Lutheran Church’s support of a pride parade.
VIDEO SCRIPT
In a long-standing case, Finland’s Bible Tweet trial reached the country’s Supreme Court Oct 30th despite it being dismissed in two lower court rulings.
Christian Finnish politician Päivi Räsänen Pie-vee Rasanen was criminally charged six years ago with hate speech against the LGBT community. The alleged acts concerned a tweet with a Bible verse questioning the Lutheran Church’s support of a pride parade, along with statements she made in a church pamphlet on Biblical marriage and sexuality.
Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola – Yoo Hannah Po holya also faces hate crime charges for posting the tweet and publishing the literature. He explains why this case highlights the importance of standing up for religious freedom:
This has a chilling effect for the whole society on what you say. There’s sense of self censorship and that’s what makes me worried. And on the other hand it has also encouraged me that freedom of speech and religion of not a self evident matter, it’s not given reality that it’s something we have to fight for and we have to use it otherwise we lose it.
And there is no set time frame for when this trial will eventually end but it’s expected to take another 6 to 18 months.
People Interviewed and their Titles
Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola
Recording Location
Finland
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