Stupid comments are not a crime yet she is being punished. She tried made a joke of the fact there were many Africans around her and west Nile mosquitos and as they bite hopefully they eat their local food and leave her alone. Not great but nothing offensive. Parse the young woman’s comments and I’m sure you’ll find it offence eventually on some level but a “hello” is also offence to some people I must deal with daily.
Some folk just crave crying victim. If more than 5 out of 10 Africans found her comment offence then well enough but this is white people shooting white people over what they fear may be offence to another race.

Derek, as pointed out below had she said the comment on TV their would have been backlash and rightly so.

Problem is she said it on a communication tool which has a far far bigger audience then any national tv station has, the sooner people realise its a WORLDWIDE PUBLIC tool then better.

Even if speech is racist preventing it is tyrannical and against the freedom of speech, because at the end of the day the sports star can be proven wrong

Nobody is preventing free speech… Say what you like! Just be prepared to be punished if what you say is racist, abusive, libellous or insulting.

If she’d made racist comments in a post race interview then it would have been while she was representing her country and under the jurisdiction of the sporting body that she represents so of course they should have the power to punish her. But it wasn’t. The comment, which wasn’t even remotely racist, was made through a PERSONAL forum. Peoples thoughts, comments, jokes etc when posted on Twitter, Facebook or anywhere else in a personal capacity should not be used to prevent someone from taking part in sport!

Peter, anyone is free to provide themselves with a platform from which to speak freely. Their right to speak freely is not abridged if another organisation or body declines to provide them with a free platform for ideas they find repugnant. In this case, it is not so much she being “punished” – there is no jail sentence here. Instead it is a sporting body declining to provide a platform, or implicit support for attitudes which completely contradict its ethos.

Not everyone looks for offence in every thing in life. Those that do need to relax and realise they are usually stating offence from their own point of view and not always for those they claim to be a voice for. As people are beginning to wake up to as they realise it’s mostly a one way system and very one deminsional

I tried writing a newspaper comment online. However I got suspended from a political party on the basis of not the comment I wrote, but the comment written before it (by someone else), the article and the other fourteen or so comments.

Yet it took 14 weeks to sort out and then the political party had to punish me because one of their politicians had lied (and within a short time had a stroke which just made them feel sorry for her). Personally I felt she was a nicer person after the stroke as it made her more truthful.

The whole “the truth is libellous” thing is misused by those in power against the media. Yet the libel laws aren’y really meant for the internet age and need reform.

It’s hard when people hold you personally responsible not just for what you write online but the rest of humanity too and punish you for it.

Personally I think if people want to be racist and make fools of themselves online, it’s their own reputation they’re destroying. There is a fine line between a personal opinion and holding people as spokespersons for whatever organisation they are involved in.

Lets be brutally honest shall we? she said Africans – hence immediately racist. Jack Dee and that British Boxers comments don’t result in them losing their jobs or positions even though they were both far more offensive, and clearly insulting to a particular nationality (us). But its all cool because their jokes didn’t mention black people or Africans. We call their jokes just jokes, even when they are not but this woman’s jokes are somehow representative of her country, classed as insulting and must be ruined for it. Double standards I think.
https://twitter.com/#!/search/Voula%20Papachristou

Jack Dee’s joke wasn’t offensive to me and I’d say most Irish people wouldn’t find it offensive as they’d recognise it as a joke without any underlying hate or hostility. I find it ironic that Mr. “political correctness gone mad” says it’s offensive. That ‘British Boxer ‘ was actually a decathlete and he apparently is an ambassador to the 2012 Olympics. He was forced to apologise however I didn’t hear about any punishment. But as far as I know he doesn’t have any history of bigotry or racism and he just said something stupid whereas Voula Papachristou openly supported Golden Dawn by re-tweeting messages and linking to youtube videos that promote their message. In that context it’s easy to see how a stupid joke like the one she made could be taken far more seriously as it seems pretty clear she is actually racist.

As for how she’s only being punished because the “joke” was about Africans, here’s Tommy Tiernan making a joke that’s somewhat at African’s expense:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5WTpUNi5fs&feature=related

But again it’s difficult to see any underlying hate or hostility in it (except maybe religion in general but that’s OK because that’s only attacking an idea).

That’s not true. We drink every day.

Think you’ll find it was more to do with her political leanings and who she advocated via Twitter than the joke. The joke was just the excuse for the authorities to ban her. Not saying it was the right thing to do.

There’s nothing like comparing like with like eh Derek? And comparing a choice between dark and milk chocolate with a statement basically saying ‘there’s too many Africans in the country’ is certainly not like for like.

I have yet to come across anyone who comes out with statements about “there are too many xxxxxx in this country” or the classic “I’m no racist, but…..” who is not a racist (whether that be with a small or large ‘R’).

Serves her right in my book.

Derek if you read your first sentence again, I think you’ll find she was representing her country (yes, even on twitter). That’s why she was expelled. It’s sad but it’s true.

“Wow, lots of Irish around London, hope we don’t have another famine! Vote for the BNP!!”

What a larf.

Plenty here will gladly drive you to the station!!

Sorry that probably falls under slanderous, someone of higher righteous morality better take me away also!