A majority of Norwegians would curb freedom

Nina Berglund:

A vast majority of Norwegians say they'd like to see limits placed on the constitutional freedom of extremist groups, like neo-Nazis, to express themselves. They'd also favor a ban on public meetings of racist groups or Muslim or Christian fundamentalists.

A survey conducted by TNS Gallup for Norwegian Social Science Data Services (Norsk samfunnsvitenskapelig datatjeneste NSD) in Bergen showed eight out of 10 Norwegians supporting a change in current constitutional rights regarding freedom of expression, speech and assembly.

The survey is part of an international effort to gauge public opinion on freedom of expression in 35 countries. It was conducted in Norway last autumn, but its results are only being made public now, reports newspaper Aftenposten.

A questionnaire completed by 1,404 Norwegians aged 18 to 79 showed 76 percent wanting to deny neo-Nazi groups from holding public meetings. Another 25 percent favored a ban on meetings of communists as well.

Only 20 percent supported allowing meetings and free expression by all groups, including, for example, racists, Muslim or Christian fundamentalists. communists or extreme right-wing groups.

Men were shown to be more skeptical towards Muslim and Christian fundamentalists than women, while women were more skeptical towards racists.

"This is very surprising, and shows that there's a certain anti-democratic current running through the population," said lawyer Cato Schiøtz, one of the Norway's foremost experts on freedom of expression.

The survey results also defy those in another survey taken more recently, where a majority of Norwegians said the war on terrorism must not damage individual human rights.

Schiøtz linked the NSD survey results to "an element of common intolerance" lying under the surface of lofty claims to the contrary.

"You only have to scrape the surface to find the undemocratic opinions," Schiøtz told Aftenposten. "It's like racism. You don't have to scrape very deep with the average Norwegian before the clear racist interpretations emerge."

He thinks most Norwegians are less liberal than they'd like to believe.

One of the ironies of liberalism is that it tends to work best in monoethnic societies. As a population grows increasingly diverse, the authorities must take steps to prevent the inevitable clashes that take place when different ethnic groups are put in close proximity to each other. Therefore, multiculturalism is ultimately the enemy of liberalism.