Ok so Freedom of Speech isn't a dealbreaker for being a "Western Democracy" and NATO member - cool.

Freedom of Speech is important and deserves study and doesn't lend itself to a breezy manner. The USA is not the first government to have Freedom of Speech and each country has its own version and traditions. I'm just waiting to see what Sweden decides.

In the Philippines I would warn some expats that they were opening up themselves to libel suits because they have a malicious exception to the truth as a defense. The exception is that even if what you said is the truth and can be shown to be the truth, if you said it maliciously you are still subject to libel. Politicians are constantly suing other politicians for libel.

So if you're cautious, you can say nearly the exact same thing and not open up yourself to libel.

Just think of it as Sweden is prosecuting someone for publicly making derogatory comments about an ethnicity, while they burned a
Quran - until we read otherwise.