Arboga autopsy photos on The Pirate Bay

File sharing site The Pirate Bay is under fire for not reacting after autopsy pictures of the two toddlers murdered in Arboga last spring were uploaded onto the site.

• Court dismisses Arboga retrial bid (5 Sep 08)
• IOC asks Sweden to block Pirate Bay (19 Aug 08)
• 'My kids were butchered like animals' (1 Aug 08)

The photographs of the dead children are part of a large collection of material from the police’s investigation of the case which can now be found on the site, reports TV4.

The children’s father Niklas Jangestig pleaded in vain to the site’s operators to remove the pictures.

“We don’t even want to them to remove the investigative material. But we don’t want there to be pictures of my dead children there,” Jangestig said to TV4.

The site’s operators responded to his request via email: “That is one helluva gripe. No, No and again no.”

“I don’t think it’s our job to judge of something is ethical or unethical or what other people want to put out on the internet,” said The Pirate Bay’s spokesperson Peter Sunde to TV4.

“People can express themselves and spread material they think is important, that’s one of the things we’re fighting for and if it’s then used for things which can be uncomfortable for some, so be it, but it’s more important that such a possibility exists than that it doesn’t exist,” added Sunde.

Press ombudsman Yrsa Stenius fears that The Pirate Bay’s so cherished concern for freedom and openness may be damaged by the site’s actions.

“They’re not doing free speech a favour by putting this up. It’s clear that politicians aren’t going to sit idle if just anything which is public is also going to be published,” she told TV4.