Finland Ends Its Prosecution of Two Citizens Who Expressed Biblical Views in Public

‘I t is not for the district court to interpret biblical concepts.”

So wrote a Finnish court this week when it dismissed charges of “hate speech” against the Finnish politician Päivi Räsänen and Lutheran bishop Juhana Pohjola. The unanimous ruling in the case rejected the zealous attempts by the Finnish prosecutor to punish, shame, and censor anyone who might state opinions that blaspheme against orthodox secularism. The court even ordered the prosecution to pay more than 60,000 euros in legal costs.

The parliamentarian’s alleged crimes included tweeting a Bible verse questioning her church leadership’s official sponsorship of the 2019 Helsinki Pride event, along with statements she made on marriage and sexuality during a 2019 radio debate and in a small church pamphlet released nearly two decades ago. Bishop Pohjola’s crimes amounted simply to publishing Räsänen’s pamphlet. The court rightly rejected the Finnish prosecutors attempts to put free speech on trial.

Indeed, this case should never have been prosecuted in the first place.

Räsänen’s three-year ordeal has involved hours of police interrogations over a tweet and a handful of her statements scattered across almost two decades. The court found multiple misrepresentations at trial by the prosecutor of Räsänen’s statements, and that Räsänen never had the slightest intent to cause harm to anyone. It rejected the prosecution’s attempts to piece together disparate statements and take them out of context, and it safeguarded Räsänen’s right to express her views, as protected under the Finnish constitution and international law.

The court also rejected the prosecution’s attempts to censor Räsänen’s speech. The prosecutor had asked that a radio program featuring Räsänen be wiped from the Internet. While the court concluded that Räsänen’s comments could be considered offensive to some people, it saw no “overriding social reason for interfering with and restricting freedom of expression” in her case.

It’s a great relief for Finland. But Räsänen’s win should have ramifications for free speech and freedom of religion worldwide, too.

In recent years, across the globe, censorship has been on the rise. Here in the U.S., for example, the Supreme Court recently agreed to hear a case about a Colorado law that threatens to punish a Web designer for declining to create websites celebrating events and promoting messages that go against her religious beliefs. The law even prohibits this artist from explaining the religious reasons behind the expressive choices she makes on her website.

Farther east, in more extreme circumstances, countries regularly cite blasphemy and religious-offense laws to shut down people who merely wish to live and speak in accordance with their faith.

The criminal prosecution of Päivi Räsänen was one of the most worrisome moves by opponents of free speech in Europe. A conviction in her case would have meant that even elected political representatives could not speak freely on controversial issues, that decades-old statements could be dredged up and ripped out of context to punish well-intentioned individuals, and that a person could be criminally fined or potentially thrown in jail merely for hosting someone else’s controversial speech. The prosecution’s scope was breathtaking.

The public and courts may be wising up to the dangers of “hate speech” litigation and prosecutions as opponents of free speech increasingly overplay their hands. Räsänen’s win provides an important bulwark against international attempts to aggressively police so-called hate speech.

But free speech isn’t out of hot water yet. Even in places around the world where there are clear legal protections for speech and religious practice, officials arrest and harass individuals who go against prevailing opinion. In Räsänen’s case, she was forced not only to defend herself in court, but also to seek the aid of people around the world to help expose the baselessness of the charges against her. But the process itself is the punishment for legally dubious cases.

So while we celebrate the acquittal of Päivi Räsänen and Bishop Pohjola and the strong decision of the court, defenders of free speech and religious freedom must continue to stand up for these rights around the world — for the sake of freedom and also simple common sense.