The editor of a Swedish newspaper has received death threats for publishing a picture of Jesus being defecated on by the devil, acording to a report in the Local website.
Östgöta Correspondenten editor Ola Sigvardsson has received several death threats since the publication of the picture, which featured on posters for a punk festival. The poster depicted a Satan figure defecating on Jesus. Linköping city council had previously censured the festival poster.
Some details:
The newspaper published the picture last Saturday and it sparked a vigorous debate on its homepage. On Thursday however the discussions became more threatening and Sigvardsson received the first of several telephone calls involving death threats.
Sigvardsson has, among other things, been threatened with having his throat cut. "I was mostly confounded," Sigvardsson said.
Sigvardsson admitted that he realized that publishing the picture would be controversial, but he underlined that the censured picture addresses the issue of freedom of speech and it was therefore important to run the story.
