Sweden’s government refused to intervene on the matter of Aftonbladet‘s libelous article on grounds of press freedom: they will not tell papers what to do, they will not punish them for doing the wrong thing.

Freedom of the press is not absolute in Europe, but still, we’d appreciate Sweden’s commitment to such lofty principles if it were consistent with past behavior. Not so. As pointed out by CiFWatch, a new blog recently launched to monitor the London Guardian‘s worst excesses against Israel, Sweden moved to shut down an electronic publication of its far-Right party back in 2006, in the midst of the Danish-cartoons furor.

What might explain the difference? Could it be that Israel and its supporters abroad might express their anger, at most, by sending letters and taking a few demonstrative diplomatic steps, while those protesting the Danish cartoons burned the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Syria and killed more than a few people around the globe?