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How we wish to be cited:
Freedom of expression in Sweden |
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The case
Lennart Eriksson, 52, has worked at the Swedish Migration Board, Göteborg, Sweden in various capacities for more than 20 years. In October 2007 he was ousted from his job as unit manager. The reasons are twofold: because he ran a website on the Internet in which he gave his opinions on various issues, and because he is a Conservative in his personal political affiliations.
Political views dictated to employees
On his website, which his employers knew about for many years, Eriksson voiced appreciation of the US and Israel as examples of thriving democracies. He also praised US general George Patton as a hero of World War Two. Eriksson has never spent work-time on his website and he has never used his work computers for this purpose. Neither do his employers contend that he ever did so.
Lennart Eriksson sued the Swedish Migration Board in Mölndal county court, Göteborg. He maintains he has in effect been fired from his job as asylum assessment unit manager, camouflaged in the form of a demotion or transfer. Lennart Eriksson feels that whatever the terminology, there is no legal or justifiable cause for the move. The Migration Board confirms that Lennart Eriksson has been transferred as a result of the opinions he expressed on his private website.
Trial venue and dates
The main hearing will take place on Friday October 10 and Monday October 13, 2008, starting at 09:00 on both days. The court’s address is: Mölndals tingsrätt, Södra Vägen 25, Göteborg, Sweden.
The case is of fundamental importance in a country that is nominally a democracy. The right to freely express opinions on political, cultural and social issues without risk of reprisal is the very foundation of a democratic society.
The opinions that Lennart Eriksson expresses are based on a strong democratic foundation whose cornerstone is the unassailable affirmation of every individual’s equal human value. In the political perspective, Lennart Eriksson’s opinions are traditionally Conservative.
Political persecution
Political persecution is unfamiliar in a country where generations of citizens have been told that this sort of thing cannot occur at home. The Swedish Migration Board fulfils a vital social function. Protecting human rights and offering asylum to victims of persecution are among the Board’s central roles. However, with the Swedish Migration Board revealing that it will not hesitate to victimise its own employees for political beliefs that are at odds with those of its managers, its credibility and the public’s confidence in its operations risk irreversible erosion.
On trial: freedom of expression in Sweden
This trial follows hard on the heels of another high-profile case in which a Swedish intern working at a Swedish embassy abroad was summarily fired and sent home when his political affiliations were discovered. That case was taken up by Sweden’s Chancellor of Justice who ordered the Foreign Ministry to pay the sacked intern compensation for wrongful dismissal. The verdict against the embassy was remarkable for its particularly brusque wording. That case bore an uncanny resemblance to the situation in which Lennart Eriksson finds himself: the freedom to have political beliefs and to express them privately resulting in a state-run institution terminating an employee’s tenure.
Ilya Meyer, Skogsgläntevägen 9, 426 68 Västra Frölunda,
Sweden
Phone +46 31 690450
Mobile phone +46 708 690450
Email:
ilya.meyer@transtext.se
Preliminary epilogue
The District Court of Mölndal ruled Nov 10, 2008, in favour of Lennart Eriksson. His demotion, damages and legal expenses are to be rectified and covered by the Board of Migration (1,2).
References
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“Sweden accused of persecuting civil servant for pro-Israel views”. Comment in Ha´aretz 20 Febr, 2008
Israel’s former ambassador to Sweden, Zvi Mazel, said he was not surprised by the incident. “The people who fired Eriksson took the lead from a prevalent anti-Israel atmosphere in Sweden’s corridors of power,” he said.
Dr. Mikael Tossavainen, a Swedish-born researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, said he considered the incident a danger to free speech.
Upon hearing about the case, the vice chair of the Sweden-Israel Friendship Society, Ilya Meyer, launched a public campaign to raise awareness about what he calls political persecution apparent in Eriksson’s case.
“If someone from another country had suffered the treatment to which Eriksson has been subjected, the victim would be granted political asylum in Sweden on the grounds of political persecution,” Meyer said.
About the author
Ilya Meyer is a writer on the Middle East and a translator. He is a frequent contributor to the public debate on the Middle East in his naturalised home of Sweden. Growing up in India, Britain, Israel and Sweden, he brings unique insight to the Middle East conflict, adding a wider perspective of historic, religious, multi-ethnic and strategic considerations. A former member of Peace Now, he became disgruntled with the movement’s naivety and its inability to stand firm on Palestinian Arab inflexibility and terror.
He is a firm believer in peace and coexistence based on respect and accountability, and feels that unconditional economic aid given to the Palestinians without firm insistence on reciprocity perpetuates the conflict and therefore their suffering. He is for expanding ties between Israel and the nascent Palestinian economy and for increased international aid to the Palestinian Arabs, via a Palestinian government that properly controls the economy and offers full transparency. Ilya Meyer firmly believes that political correctness and fear of Islamist violence have coerced the media into participating in the conflict instead of reporting on it. As such, this conflict is one of the longest-running and most infected injustices in the modern world. Ilya Meyer is an avid collector and restorer of classic 1950s British cars.
Another paper on democracy and human rights in Sweden:
Norberg B. Costs of culture myths – aborigines and bastards in the welfare state [culture]. Rondel 2006; 26. URL: http://www.rondellen.net/culture26_eng.htm
Published September 30, 2008
The
Swedish Migration Board is in court pursuing a claim against an employee
charged with being a Conservative who also wrote favourable comments on his
private website about the US and Israel as pillars of democracy. The Swedish
Migration Board feels that Conservatives and people who express themselves
favourably about these two countries are not fit to hold a unit management
position.