Amongst all the turmoil in the Mideast, some good news: Lars Hedegaard has been acquitted — on a technicality, but we’ll take it. He published this statement at the website of the International Free Press Society:
As my ancient forefathers, the Vikings, would have said: It is always good to fight. It is better to win.
My detractors ”“ the foes of free speech and the enablers of an Islamic ascendancy in the West ”“ will claim that I was acquitted on a technicality, namely that the judge in the Court of Frederiksberg resolved that my supposedly offensive comments on the violations against little Muslim girls were not intended for public dissemination.
That is absolutely true. The judge chose the way out provided by my capable counsel. However, the public prosecutor has been privy to the circumstances surrounding my case for a year ”“ and yet he chose to prosecute me. Obviously in the hope that he could secure a conviction given the Islamophile sentiment among our ruling classes.
My acquittal is therefore a major victory for free speech.
have no doubt that the massive support I have received from freedom fighters around the world has been instrumental in securing my acquittal.
This outcome will encourage people all over the West and beyond to speak up.
The battle for freedom is far from lost.
Courage!
Everlasting shame to the Western media who ignored this story.
Prominently featured at the IFPS page is this fine rant by Pat Condell, in which he reminds us that:
…without the right to speak your mind, all other rights are worthless. Free speech is … as intrinsic and essential a part of our identity as the Koran is for Muslims — and nobody has the right to restrict it or to modify it, regardless of who claims to be offended.
8 Comments
I’m pretty much an absolutist on free speech issues, so we’re aligned as far as Lars Hedegaard goes. However, I think “everlasting shame” overstates your case. We live in a country where it is perfectly legal to burn the Koran on national television. Maybe there is something rotten in the state of Denmark. However, if there is, I don’t think it’s a big deal as far as America is concerned, and I’m unsurprised that it hasn’t been a hot topic in the media.
Come on, Peter. Of all the issues that the press would normally take an interest in, you’d think freedom of the press in democratic societies would at least make the list. When the president of the International Free Press Association (!) goes on trial for expressing his opinions in his own home, it ought to be worth at least a column or two.
If he’d been speaking out against institutionalized racism, or criticizing the war in Iraq, or something like that, and had been similarly muzzled, it would have been on the front page.
This “something rotten” is not just in Denmark, either.
If he was muzzled for criticizing the invasion of Iraq, I don’t think it would have been covered either. It’s Denmark: small potatoes. I don’t think that freedom of speech (or lack of it) in a dinky little country known primarily for blonds is a big deal, regardless of what the topic is.
Denmark known primarily for blondes? This is a remarkable statement from one who claims to be “pretty much an absolutist on free speech issues.”
Wow. OK.
Being facetious here. After all, I like to have a Danish in the morning as much as the next guy. However, given everything which is going on the world right now, I don’t think this is a big deal, and I don’t see any shame in not reporting it.
Facetiousness (is that actually a word? ugh!) aside, how can it not be a big deal when an exercise of free speech is prosecuted in the nation that has (until quite recently) set the standard for freedom of expression?
Facetiousness, which is merely a pompousness for “I’m just keeding”, is the last resort of a cornered a-hole.