ZGram - June 22, 2004 - "Censorship in Finland"
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zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org
Thu Jun 24 13:17:36 EDT 2004
Zgram - Where Truth is Destiny: Now more than ever!
June 22, 2004
Good Morning from the Zundelsite:
Behold our contemporary censors at work - in Finland, of all places:
[START]
Helsinki, January 27, 2004
Helsinki state prosecutor says Finnish introduction to book on
Russian Revolution is criminally anti-semitic
By Heikki Hellman
Helsingen Sanomat
A BOOK on the last phases of the Russian imperial family is leading
to charges of incitement to ethnic hatred being filed in Vantaa
District Court. State Prosecutor Jorma Aijälä says that the
introduction of the book defames the Jews as an ethnic group and
libels the Jewish religion.
According to the indictment, the text constitutes both incitement
against an ethnic group, and violation of the sanctity of religion.
Prosecutions for either crime are quite rare in Finland.
The work is the Finnish translation of The Last Days of the Romanovs
by Robert Wilton. It appeared in Finnish in 2000. The book is
published in Finland by a group called Tabernaculum Dei, which
operates in the southwest of the country. The book's translator who
wrote the introduction to Finnish edition uses the pseudonym Jakim
Boor.
The Ministry of Justice found that the text of the introduction was
criminal in its content and called for charges to be filed already in
February last year. The State Prosecutor drafted an indictment in
late May [2004] and the issue will soon come up in Vantaa District
Court.
The upcoming prosecution was made public on the web site of the
publication Kirjastolehti (Library Journal), published by the Finnish
Library Society. According to the publication, several libraries have
already pulled the book from their shelves, or are in the process of
doing so.
The introduction drafted for the Finnish version of Wilton's book
claims that the Jews are a threat to other ethnic groups, and
especially Christians. The piece also lists a number of wars, acts of
violence, and crimes, which the Jews have supposedly committed
throughout history. Similar material is also contained in Wilton's
book, which was originally published in 1920. For instance, a web
site favoured by neo-Nazis claims that the book proves that the
Russian Revolution was, in fact, the work of Jewish Bolsheviks.
Tabernaculum Dei claims to base its activities on the theology and
philosophy of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772). The pseudonym Jakim
Boor has been used before: in the 1940s and 1950s the name was used
by Spain's dictator Francisco Franco for some of his writings. Robert
Wilton, meanwhile, served as the Russian correspondent of the British
newspaper The Times from 1902 to 1919. In addition to his book on the
last days of the Romanovs, he wrote another one entitled Russia's
Agony (1918). Both have been published in several languages.
Helsingin Sanomat has learned that the edition of 1,000 copies has
been fully sold out, or distributed. The publisher has sent copies to
all Members of Parliament, for instance.
The book has been distributed both through book stores, and through
companies dealing with the distribution of books to public libraries.
The Finnish translator of the book is also known to have personally
marketed the book to libraries.
No copies of the book were to be found in Helsinki's two main
bookstores, the Akateeminen kirjakauppa and Suomalainen kirjakauppa
on Friday, but it can be ordered through both bookstores.
Libraries in Espoo took the book off their shelves in December,
following negative feedback from customers. In Vantaa the two copies
held by the city's library network have not been available since the
autumn of 2000.
The book has never been acquired by Helsinki's libraries, but it can
be found in many of Finland's provincial libraries; last week it was
still available in most of them.
"We are surprised that the work has been available at libraries at
all", says Dan Kantor, a spokesman for Helsinki's Jewish Congregation.
His congregation originally filed a complaint to the ministry of
justice over the book. "Many libraries heard of it at that stage, and
we understood that the book was being removed from the shelves."
According to the Ministry of Education, it is up to individual
municipalities to decide what measures to take with respect to the
book. This past week provincial governments have informed libraries
on the issue and reminded them that distributing the book could be a
crime.
The Last Days of the Romanovs is available from Noontide Press for $6.95.
(Source: http://www.fpp.co.uk/online/04/06/Romanovs_Jews.html )
[END]
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