European freedom of speech

Yesterday, the Netherlands made headlines with the Amsterdam court verdict that Geert Wilders, a rightwing Dutch MP, has to face trial for hate speech.

This is the truth - we do not have real freedom of speech in Europe, in many countries there are hate speech laws. Considering our recent collective past however, that is not so surprising. I consider this a useful tool that should be very sparingly and judiciously used. In this instance, it would have been better to engage in spirited public debate instead of prosecution in a court of law. In my opinion, this does not warrant prosecution.

Today my attention was caught by a blog cataloguing a far more grievous freedom of speech issues, in one of our new EU countries, Latvia, in November 2008 (I expect it's ongoing still).

I find it shocking. Shocking that this is one of the EU and NATO member countries (since 2004), one who also has a voice in how the rest of Europe is governed.
(In my opinion, in a mad dash to expand, far too many countries were granted admission far too quickly. This only serves to strengthen my opinion. )

This is also a freedom of speech issue but while the first -which I hesitantly approve of- is intended to prevent hate crimes, the second seems to be designed mainly for repression.

I could go through the EU countries one at a time and find similar issues.
The right of free speech is still a far too rare jewel in Europe, no matter what treaties we sign. Looking at the actions of the EU towards Ireland, France and the Netherlands of late (the latter two with enthusiastic co-operation of their leaders) regarding the European Constitution Treaty, I would say we are moving back towards more repressive times, and not enlightenment, prosperity and freedom.