#whiskygate #viski hits Finland – blogger’s use of word “whisky” got censored

It has been a busy weekend in Finland. The Beer and Whisky Expo 2014 is due in two weeks and now our government officials thought it would be a good time to play the mafia game. They contacted the organizer of the Beer and Whisky Expo 2014 and required him to be in touch of two bloggers ( Whisky and Beer blogger mushiMalt and a beer blogger JaskanKaljat) so that the private bloggers would remove all logos and whisky-words from their blog posts about the event. The alternative would have been that the event could have not been held, at least without any beer or whisky. That would have led to the bankruptcy of the organizer. More info in English from YLE News article: http://yle.fi/uutiset/hs_finnish_officials_ban_the_word_whisky_on_private_blog/7523995

There has been a lot of activity in the SoMe about the subject. For once the people are awake when  their freedom of speech is concerned. The officials made assumptions that the bloggers were part of the event organizing staff or got paid for the posts. They are and were not.

It is very important, that you would spread the word about this all around the globe. Finland is a member country in EU and should have more freedom of speech like some other, unnamed Asian, country. Of course some of the officials deny that they required this act to happen, but they forgot that some of their communication is also in writing. Once got they burned, they try to hide and crawl low.

I am a whisky enthusiast. I like to try new tastes and experiment on the tasting orders. The culture amongst bloggers and whisky is changing and evolving. There are more activity in the field now than ever. People are interested about tastes and experiences and many have grown fond of whisky after a nice tasting. And to some people’s amazements, it has been so good experience that they didn’t even want to get drunk so they can fully enjoy the smoky or less smoky drams!

I hope there will be a lots of discussion and loud shout about this #viski subject in the following weeks and months. If this dies with silence, it may end up affecting all bloggers who blog about strong alcohol drinks – like the precious water of life. The culture will go underground and stop evolving. At least in Finland. Did you know that the Glenmorangie distillery has banned visits to their web pages, in case the person is using a Finnish IP address? We get a “nice” notification that our access is restricted due to our country’s laws. And to my knowledge, Glenmorangie is not even subject to Finnish laws, but of course their resellers in this country are.. https://glenmorangie.com/en/restricted Welcome To Finland.

Please share #viski tag in social media. Photos, opinions and support. Let’s not get into more deep in this swamp. Peat is good, damp old bog is not :)

Sláinte