Bianca Kronlöf, actor and comedian, Irena Pozar, journalist, Irena Pozar, journalist, Ulf Mellström, researcher talks about being subjected to threats and hatred.
Bianca Kronlöf, actor and comedian, says: I've been subjected to phone calls, stalking, letters to my home and above all comment fields.
Irena Pozar, journalist, says: I’ve received most of the threats and hatred online on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and in my e-mail box. I’ve also had letters sent to my home.
Patrik Lundberg, author and journalist, says: Then there are also these indirect threats when somebody posts my address or phone number on the Internet.
Ulf Mellström, researcher, says: It’s anonymous e-mails when I’ve written debate articles. “We know where you live.” Once in a debate in Gothenburg, I felt as if something physical could happen here. Then I took a back way and went out.
Threats and hatred can be many different kinds of crimes, such as unlawful threats, molestation, unlawful coercion, insulting behaviour and defamation. It may also be a matter of unlawful breach of privacy, photographic activity constituting invasion of privacy, agitation against a national or ethnic group or sexual molestation.
Here are a few examples of crimes that may be linked to threats and hatred.
A person who physically molests another person or subjects another person to disturbing contact or other ruthless conduct, is, if the act is liable to noticeably violate that person’s peace, guilty of molestation and is sentenced to a fine or imprisonment for at most one year.
A person who threatens another person with a criminal act in a manner that is liable to occasion serious fear in the person threatened for the safety of their own or someone else’s person, property, liberty or peace is guilty of making an unlawful threat and is sentenced to a fine or imprisonment for at most one year.
A person who, by assault or otherwise by violence or by threat of a criminal act, coerces another person to do, submit to or omit to do something, is guilty of unlawful coercion and is sentenced to a fine or imprisonment for at most two years.
A person who exposes themselves to another person in a manner that is liable to cause discomfort, or who otherwise molests a person by word or deed in a way that is liable to violate that person’s sexual integrity is guilty of sexual molestation and is sentenced to a fine or imprisonment for at most two years.
A person who inflicts bodily injury, illness or pain on another person or renders them helpless or in some other similar state is guilty of assault and is sentenced to imprisonment for at most two years or, if the offence is minor, to a fine or imprisonment for at most six months.
A person who identifies someone as being a criminal or as having a reprehensible way of life, or otherwise provides information liable to expose that person to the contempt of others is guilty of defamation and is sentenced to a fine.
A person who intrudes into the private life of another person by disseminating:
A person who harasses another person by means of criminal acts that constitute:
A person who, in cases other than those referred to in Section 1 or 2, directs accusation, a derogatory statement or humiliating conduct at another person is, if the act is liable to violate the other person’s self-esteem or dignity, guilty of insulting behaviour and is sentenced to a fine. If the offence is gross, the sentence is a fine or imprisonment for at most six months.
As aggravating circumstances when assessing penalty value, in addition to what applies for each specific type of offence, particular consideration is given to:
whether a motive for the offence was to insult a person or a population group on grounds of race, colour, national or ethnic origin, religious belief, sexual orientation or transgender identity or expression, or another, similar circumstance.
As aggravating circumstances when assessing penalty value, in addition to what applies for each specific type of offence, particular consideration is given to:
whether the offence was committed against a person on grounds of them or a family member having held office as an elected representative at central, municipal or regional level, in the Sami Parliament or in the European Parliament.