Patriot Act or no, here in the U.S. you don't go to jail for your opinions
VIENNA, Feb. 20 (AP) — The British historian David Irving on Monday pleaded guilty to denying the Holocaust and was sentenced to three years in prison . . . . He was convicted under a 1992 law, which applies to "whoever denies, grossly plays down, approves or tries to excuse the National Socialist genocide or other National Socialist crimes against humanity in a print publication, in broadcast or other media."Amidst all the clamor in the U.S. these days over the Patriot Act, warrantless electronic surveillance and all the other ostensibly well-intentioned nibbles around the edges of our freedoms, it's easy to lose perspective. Many of the freedoms we take for granted in this country don't exist in countries we normally think of as among the most enlightened.
Here in the United States, David Irving can pretty much say and publish what he likes. Not so in Austria (unclear why he went back there while their arrest warrant was outstanding), Germany, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Poland, Lithuania and Israel. In those countries, you can be sent to jail for expressing certain beliefs about the Holocaust. Yes, the Holocaust was very bad, and those countries have a special nexus with it, but that's not the point.
The point is that in those countries, you don't have a right to free speech. You have a right to free speech to the extent that the country hasn't outlawed the expression of your particular opinions. Fortunately, these countries haven't decided to outlaw very many opinions, but there is no principled reason why they couldn't. They could easily outlaw the cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed if they wanted to. Perhaps some of them already have.
So perhaps David Irving should have stayed home in the United Kingdom and avoided going to jail for expressing his opinions. Because there's no chance of going to jail for one's opinions in a country with no bill of rights, no written constitution of any kind, a robust Official Secrets Act, restrictive libel laws which burden the defendant with proving he did not libel the plaintiff, etc. Did I mention the state religion?
As David Irving begins to serve a prison sentence for expressing his preposterous opinions, it's worth reflecting that many of the most "enlightened" countries in the world are constituted in ways that would shock the sensibilities of Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, Dick Cheney and just about any other right winger you can name.
posted at 6:36 PM
2 Comments:
Am I the only one who can't take seriously ANYTHING that includes "Vienna" in its substance?
Substance being relative given my previous comment...I meant Vienna in any aspect of its being.
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