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| Europe |
| Extreme Islamist homepage in Sweden disturbs Russia |
| 2009-09-13 |
| Interesting article, although awkwardly translated A prosecutor in Russia has asked Swedish authorities for information about an extreme Islamist homepage in Sweden. The reason is that a threat towards a Russian civil servant has been published on the homepage. This is reported in the Swedish Public Radio broadcaster SR in the programme ŽMediernaŽ. The homepage is called Kavkaz Center and has substance with encouragement to Jihad and extreme violence. It describes itself as an independent Chechen news source and it is formally based in Sweden. The homepage shows for example videos of successful bombings and assasination combined with suggestive religious music. According to Medierna, there is also an explicit threat towards a Russian civil servant written by an anonymous person on the homepage. But why did Russian authorities contact Sweden? What is special with this homepage is that in the middle of all this, there is a text claiming that the site is protected by the Swedish constitution of press freedom. The Russian wanted to know who this anonymous writer is which made the threat. They sent their question to Swedish authorities and it was handled by the Swedish Attorney-General, Göran Lambertz, who said no to the Russian demand for a name. The reason was, according to Lambertz, that while the homepage has been granted authorization to publish which means that they have a strong protection in the Swedish constitution. According to this, it is forbidden to give out the names of the writers in the specific media source. The condition is that the news source must have a specific person that is entitled Žlegally responsible publisherŽ. But Medierna did some research about Kavkaz Center and it turned out that they might not have a legally responsible publisher. They person who was registered as the repsonsible publisher was called but he said that he had left the newspaper. He thought it had become too extreme according to Medierna. Then Medierna called the person who is, according to the website, its publisher. This turned out to be a very young man who is studying in a small town in north-Sweden. He said on the phone to Medierna that he is certainly not the publisher of the site but that his uncle in Turkey convinced him to put his name on the paper. Formally therefore, the news source seems not to have a legally responsible publisher. This does not mean however that their protection is taken away directly but that it will be investigated. Medierna brings in their programme an intricate question to debate. Is it possible that extreme organizations abroad use the strong Swedish press freedom to cover threats and extreme propaganda? It is obvious in this case that people in Sweden have been pressured to put their names on it to position the website in Sweden with its strong protection. Kavkaz CenterŽs news site was started in Lithuania in the late 1990Žs. After pressures from Russia it was however closed down. Then the site moved to Finland but the same thing happened. Now it has moved to Sweden is has a much stronger protection. Medierna asked Mr Lambertz how this can be possible. Lambertz: I have never seen this kind of situation before. If there is no legally responsible publisher, the authorization to publish and therefore the consittutional protection should be withdrawn. We might have to take a closer look at this. Note: The quotes are translated from Swedish and not exact. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #3 First he said, “My knowledge isn’t so compartmentalized that I can’t see the forest for the trees”. Lastly, he said, “It should be obvious that very unpleasant things are coming to major US cities near most of you soon.” |
| Posted by: Asymmetrical Triangulation 2009-09-13 20:58 |
| #2 Uh, uh, DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR KIDZ = NUKES ARE TONITE [methinks Radical Islam-Milits knows]??? Gut nuthin. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-09-13 20:08 |
| #1 Kavkaz is still around? Geez, I thought the Russians would have taken them down a long time ago. Very fanatical pro-Chechen terrorist, anti Russian site. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2009-09-13 12:42 |