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

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 ]