Description: In 2019, Finnish police interrogated Päivi Räsänen for the ‘crime’ of tweeting her biblical worldview. Räsänen, a Finnish medical doctor, active parliamentarian, former Minister of the Interior, mother, grandmother, and Christian, posted the tweet to question her church’s official sponsorship of the Helsinki LGBTQ ‘Pride 2019’ event. Following the tweet, the police also investigated a pamphlet that she authored for her church in 2004 titled, “As Man and Woman He Created Them” about sexuality and marriage. Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola also stood trial alongside Räsänen for publishing the pamphlet.
ADF International lawyer, Finnish Parliamentarian to testify on European threat to American free speech
Friday, Jan 30, 2026
WHO: Finnish Parliamentarian Päivi Räsänen and ADF International Legal Counsel Lorcán Price will testify Wednesday before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, warning lawmakers that Europe’s coercive online speech restrictions are impacting American citizens and American tech corporations like X, Meta, and Google.
Räsänen’s case has become one of Europe’s most prominent examples of the criminalization of speech. Räsänen has faced trial three separate times for expressing her Christian beliefs online in a 2019 tweet. She is currently awaiting a verdict from the Finnish high court, which heard her case in October.
WHAT: Price will offer testimony regarding Europe’s censorship crisis and the European Union’s attack on free speech using the Digital Services Act, which uses Europe’s most restrictive laws to censor American citizens online while co-opting major tech platforms as tools for censorship and threatening crippling fines for noncompliance.
The House Judiciary Committee warned about the DSA’s risks to American free speech in its July report, “The Foreign Censorship Threat: How the European Union’s Digital Services Act Compels Global Censorship and Infringes on American Free Speech.”
WHEN: Wednesday, Feb. 4, beginning at 10 a.m. EST
WHERE: Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C., and via livestream
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
To schedule an interview, contact ADF Media Relations Manager Jacqueline Ribeiro at (202) 961-9396.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
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