American Ethnologist
Volume 45, Issue 1, 2018, Pages 100-111

The front line of free speech: Beyond parrhêsia in Finland's migrant debate (Article)

Englund H.*
  • a Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Free School Lane, Cambridge, CB2 3RF, United Kingdom

Abstract

Among Finland's public-service broadcasters, there is a contrast between professional ethics and the “fearless speech” of parrhêsia. This contrast reveals some of the diverse forms in which free speech is pursued in contemporary liberal polities. In 2015, Kansanradio (The people's radio), a popular Finnish radio show, became a site for fresh controversies over free speech when the so-called migrant crisis dominated its discussions. Caught between the parrhêsia of public intellectuals and bigoted listeners, Kansanradio’s hosts pursued a dialogical approach to truth telling. Whereas parrhêsia risks the relationship between interlocutors, this dialogical modality rests on a carefully cultivated multivocality of viewpoints. It challenges the assumption—common to both the scholarship on parrhêsia and some (but not all) liberal orientations—that voice is a person's private property. [free speech, parrhêsia, truth telling, migrant crisis, radio, voice, Finland]. © 2018 by the American Anthropological Association

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Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85041924068&doi=10.1111%2famet.12602&partnerID=40&md5=9dbb61f7a784ebd3c5fab1a78deaa417

DOI: 10.1111/amet.12602
ISSN: 00940496
Cited by: 2
Original Language: English