Police open Pandora’s Box by prosecuting people for what they say on the Internet.
According to a story published by the Times of Malta, a Maltese citizen is likely to be charged with thought and speech crimes for a video he released last month on YouTube.
Malta, like many countries in Europe, has destroyed freedom of speech by defining certain speech as felonious if it is deemed to “incite racial hatred.” Across Europe, these laws are enforced for mere statements of fact — such as differentials in crime rates — or for opposing non-European immigration.
The citizen being investigated goes by the nickname “Hitler,” and the video showed him speaking to a private gathering last month.
In attendance at the gathering was Imperium Europa founder, artist, Nietzschean philosopher and martial artist Norman Lowell. As a celebrity, Lowell is routinely invited to attend many events; and Lowell reported that he attended the event without being fully apprised of the nature of its attendees or speakers.
Norman Lowell described the speaker’s approach as “counterproductive,” and noted that:
“If you notice in the video I avoided him. He’s at a very different level, you see, I don’t know why they made him speak. It was a bit embarrassing.”
Embarrassing or not, the issue here is whether or not a citizen, however unpopular, counterproductive or even idiotic his speech may be, ought to face jail time for expressing his thoughts and opinions.
Norman Lowell is of the same opinion, adding that the police have now opened a Pandora’s Box by prosecuting people for what they say on the Internet.
He said the media was going to face the consequences for not supporting people who were prosecuted for what they said, and that the people of Malta would soon end up being unable to order black coffees.