» posted on 4:24pm - February 10 2006 | posted by Lev

The Swedish government has moved to shut down the website of a far-right political party's newspaper over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

The site's host, Levonline, pulled the plug on the website of the Swedish Democrats' SD-Kuriren newspaper after consulting with the government.

It is believed to be the first time a Western government has intervened to block a publication in the growing row.

Kuriren editor Richard Jomshof said the government was breaking the law.

"We have to do something about it. This is illegal. They can't do this just because we are a small magazine," he told the BBC News website.

The Swedish Democrats are a small anti-immigrant party with no representatives in parliament, but a few local elected officials.

Jomshof said the newspaper had a print run of about 30,000.

Call for cartoons

He had asked readers to send in their own Muhammad cartoons, but he denies intending to offend Muslims.

His website briefly posted a picture showing Muhammad from the rear, looking into a mirror, with his eyes blacked out - an image he said was about self-censorship.

"It was directed at the Swedish government and Swedish magazines," Jomshof said.

"They are cowards for not standing by the Danish people and Jyllands-Posten [Danish newspaper which first published controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad last year]."

Muslims around the world have demonstrated against the cartoons since they were republished in a number of European newspapers at the end of January.

Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds described Kuriren's move as "a provocation" by "a small group of extremists".

"I will defend freedom of the press no matter what the circumstances, but I strongly condemn the provocation by SD-Kuriren. It displays a complete lack of respect," she said in a statement.

Site back up

Levonline CEO Turkel Nyberg told the BBC News website his company had pulled the plug on the site after discussions with the foreign ministry and the security police.

"It seemed like it could be a bad for us and for others to have the site up. The problem was the content, which was these Muhammad pictures," he said.

He said he had been told by the government that Arab media were carrying reports about SD-Kuriren's call for cartoons about Muhammad.

Sweden - which opposed the war in Iraq and is a leading donor to the Middle East - has largely avoided becoming the target of Muslim anger over the cartoons.

The SD-Kuriren website is currently back online via a back-up server.

"All they did was close down some links to the server. We have other links that are still working," Jomshof said.

SOURCE: BBC

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My two cents: This doesn't surprise me or come as a shock at all. Sweden does not have freedom of speech; they have a butched half ass nuetral stance on it like everything else. Racism is not protected under free speech and neither is having an opinion or voice which is considered hateful or intolerant. I can see the good behind their intentions, yet the system itself is completely flawed and causes more harm than good. While Sweden has laws making it a crime to be a nazi or sympathize with nazi sentiments, neo-nazism flourishes in Sweden. The idiots in parliment do not realize that reverse-racism creates martyrs out of hate-filled causes. It also does not take into account that by censoring thought of any kind (even if racist or intolerant) is an intolerant practice itself! Sweden is too far gone caught up in trying to please everyone and remain neutral on all "touchy" subjects that it fails to protect simple liberties such as allowing anyone to believe what they want no matter how offensive it might be. There is a difference between acting intolerantly and thinking intolerantly but the law-makers here cannot even begin to fathom this. Violence is a crime; thought should never be a crime!

Sweden's act of constantly disregarding un-popular ideas and beliefs has completely overshadowed it's so-called "freedom of speech". You cannot simply censor un-favorable ideas and ideas of hatred and expect them to fade away. This too is a form of intolerance and is no different than the intolerance the system claims to stand against! If you want racist ideas to go away you need to combat them through education and tolerance, not by censorship.

Sweden; your constant disregard for the rights and liberties of all those we censor because we do not agree with DISGUSTS ME. How can Sweden claim to be a nation which opposes nazism but practices the very same tactics as nazi regimes, such as CENSORSHIP.

I am far from being a racist or right-wing radical, but I cannot sit silent in a nation where I do not feel I even have the right to think or express my convictions unless they are socially acceptable. I resent racism and hatred as well, but I do not feel censorship is helping in anyway. On the contrary, I would say it's making things much worse and scaring free-thinkers, like me, from feeling comfortable with their thoughts. I worry each and everyday that one day my brain and my thoughts will think so far out of the box that they lock me up in a box because my thoughts are not acceptable. This should not be possible In a free society where freedom of speech is upheld in the highest regard. Unfortunately, Sweden proves to me on a regular basis that they do not regard freedom of speech as dearly as true lovers of liberty like myself do.

No one's ideas should be valued more than anyone elses ideas. Part of having a tolerant society means living in a world where you wont always agree with every idea that floats around, but you will tolerate them still, because they are ideas.

Let people by judged by their actions, not by their thoughts.

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