The Slippery Slope

Dear readers abroad and home.

Tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock, the scales can tip either way; I've got no clue or hint. Our Swedish Parliament - the Riksdag - is going to vote for, or against, a new law which enables the authority FRA, Swedish Radio Surveillance,
to monitor and bug any arbitrary email, internet traffic or cell phone conversation which connects with other countries than Sweden. No approval from prosecutor, government or police will then be required.

Also, reporters and editors can no longer protect the identity (from FRA and the government) of the person who gives information to the media in question. I. e. freedom of speech walks on a thin line.

All in the name of, and hunt for, possible terrorist activities and threats to our civilization and Kingdom.

In this particular case, I would like to defend the so called 'slippery slope argument', or maybe I needn't bother:

"It suggests that an action will initiate a chain of events culminating in an undesirable event later without establishing or quantifying the relevant contingencies." (source: wikipedia)
but on the other hand:
"Arguments that provide a well-supported chain of contingencies are not slippery slope arguments."

I ask for some guarantees, or at least reassuring laws, for protection of the individual citizen, before any monitoring or bugging propositions are even up on the table at our governing politicians.

Namely, these ones:

* That no other authority, but the FRA, and the government, should have access to the collected information.

* That no employer can ask for, and be granted, info from FRA:s stack of information. I've talked to people/colleagues who have never said anything about their religious beliefs at work, out of fear of losing the job. And there are probably many more things not mentioned to the boss, which I don't know about.

* That the monitoring itself should be supervised by colleagues, following consistent rules from the commanders at FRA.

* Consider the protection of the identity of a person being interviewed by a reporter.
Would you really like to remove this cornerstone of human rights?

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If these four issues were properly dealt with before any legislative decision of the sort, and carefully displayed in the media, I think the citizens of Sweden would almost be content, and gain more confidence in the politicians we elected. This time we see many loose ends lingering about, frequently asked questions unanswered, etc.


I ask the members of the Swedish riksdag to vote No/Negative tomorrow morning. Thank you, in advance.


(Readers are welcome to comment in both English and Swedish)
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Dagen, Dagen, Dagen, SvD, SvD, DN, DN, DN, Sydsvenskan, Sydsvenskan, HD, HD: Sigfrid röstar nej till FRA-lagen,

photo © Darren Hester for openphoto.net (CC: Attribution-NonCommercial)