Swiss Government Exercises its Right to Freedom of Speech

The Swiss Peoples Party (SVP), the largest party in the Swiss government, has stuck this poster up all of Switzerland. Its part of a new campaign aimed at deporting the families of foreigners when a family member commits a crime.

The image is of the good people kicking out the black sheep, but it also has racist connotations and the back, red and white colour scheme does have that 'hint of Nazi' vibe going on.

The SVP have also published a poster showing a veiled Muslim woman with the question, "Where are we living, Baden or Baghdad?".

Jewish groups, left wing parties and even the UN have complained about the poster. According to the BBC, the United Nations special rapporteur on racial discrimination, Doudou Diene from Senegal, has asked the Swiss government for an official explanation of the campaign.

The SVP responded by saying, "We have got freedom of speech in our country. Obviously [Mr Diene] has not understood our culture of democracy. I would suggest he reads up on it."

When Lars Vilks published his Mohammed cartoon he said he did so to provoke and to see where the limits of freedom of speech are. Much has been written since then regarding this issue, so I wonder what pepole think of the SVS evoking the 'freedom of speech' arguement in this case.

This isn't just a rogue person after all who one can choose to ignore, or some small rightwing group looking for publicity, but rather the democratically elected government of a soverign European country.