Östagöta nation’s inspector and teacher at the University writes on Twitter that he wishes communist sympathisers should be deported to North Korea for good. A statement that the University finds inappropriate.
Henrik Norinder is a popular lecturer at the Faculty of Law. In 2001 he received Lund’s student unions’ prize in pedagogy. He has since 2012 been an inspector at Östgöta nation. On his open Twitter account with over 300 followers he wrote last Thursday:
“Sometimes I wish that sympathisers and members of the communist party should be deported to North Korea. For good.”
Ingrid Estrada Magnusson, HR manager at the University thinks it’s inappropriate to express that kind of thoughts as a University teacher.
“If you’re a person involved with the students it’s important to think about what you say,” says Ingrid Estrada Magnusson.
Henrik Norinder asserts that he doesn’t tweet as a representative for the university or inspector at Östgöta nation but as a private person. He also says that he alone is responsible for what he says and neither his employer nor the nation is responsible.
“I stand up for human rights and I don’t think that communist sympathisers do that,” he says.
Does it conform with human rights to say that someone should be deported to North Korea?
“I mean to say that communists don’t stand for human rights. And that being the case, why should they be allowed to refer to human rights,” says Henrik Norinder.
Previous Twitter debate
Last summer a professor in biology at the University attracted attention after he had written a tweet where he made fun of and said that he wanted to spit on a chief editor of a far-right paper. Now the twitter issue is on the agenda again and the question is if it’s ok for a University employee to write in public forums and in social media.
“The difficult thing for us as an authority at the same time as we need to respect peoples’ freedom and equal value, we also need to protect the freedom of speech. We can’t forbid our employees to express themselves in certain ways,” says Ingrid Estrada Magnusson.
Do you think it conforms with the University’s values to have an employee who have these kind of opinions?
“No I don’t think so. It doesn’t conform with the values of the University,” says HR manager Ingrid Estrada Magnusson.
At the same time Henrik Norinder says that he thinks the values of the University is important.
“I think you can have a lot of different interpretations of how the values should be incorporated. If it should be interpreted that way I will write in accordance with the values that the University claim to have. And in that case I have to delete the tweet,” says Henrik Norinder.
The tweet was meant to be a response to Carl Bildt’s tweet that the communist party in Sweden would support the concentration camps in North Korea.
“Yes, it’s inconsiderate to write in the way I did. At the same time I think that people who think concentration camps is a good way to handle political questions is difficult to reason with sensibly. Sometimes my emotions affect my writing. It was probably ill-considered,” says Henrik Norinder.
Tweets privately
Henrik Norinder is not only an employee at the University he is also inspector at Östgöta nation. In an interview with the nation’s magazine Ostroskopet he urges the students to use social media considerately in order to promote themselves and keep up with things.
“I hope and think that the students and the members knows that it is something that I write as a private person. The nation is politically independent and is after all not affected by what I write privately. I can’t see how my students would consider my tweet as a problem. That is my opinion,” says Henrik Norinder.
The nation: “He has a good sense of humour”
The curator at Östgöta nation Jonas Sennerskog agrees with the fact that Henrik Norinder doesn’t tweet as an inspector and doesn’t want to comment on what he writes on twitter.
If some of your members are communist sympathisers then?
“We are politically independent,” says Jonas Sennerstig.
The fact that Henrik Norinder writes with an open account where his profile mentions Östgöta nation and often re-tweets the nation’s tweets doesn’t seem to bother the curator.
“Henrik has a good sense of humour and what he writes on Twitter should not be taken too seriously” says Jonas Sennerstig, curator at Östgöta nation.
Text: Lisa Blidnert
Translation: Mia Söllwander
