it may seem like justice, but its a dangerous precedent...

[acroyear]

Austria doesn't have freedom of speech as we do.  Yesterday, they jailed David Irving, for openly denying that the holocaust ever happened.

This is wrong.  Liars should be exposed as liars, emperors without clothes revealed, so that they have no credibility and can just spout their crap in the corner where no-one would want to listen to them.  Liars should not be jailed just for lying. 

Now, if they committed fraud (meaning, to me, they  made money on their lies outside of publishing fees and public speaking, which are both part of freedom of speech), that would be different.  But just publishing a work or making a statement and getting jailed for it puts that European country as not much better than the extreme Islamic world that condemns Denmark.

Comments

[greendalek.livejournal.com]

Agreed. A dissenting voice in the article opined that "An argument that must rely on force of law is by definition a weak argument." I like that.

I am grateful that such extremism hasn't yet taken root here in the U.S., although sadly it doesn't require much of a stretch of the imagination to see people someday getting prison sentences for making such statements as "Justice Department officials knew 9/11 was coming," "FBI agents deliberately set the Waco fire," or "Iran has no nuclear weapons program."

[sirblackfox.livejournal.com]

I'm on the fence in my opinion about this one. I agree, liars shouldn't be sentenced just for lying. . .but I would temper that by adding. . . in the United States.

This law in Austria may seem wrong to us, but to Austrians, especially those still living from the post WWII era (into the 1950s), it's an important way to keep their Nazi past at arm's length (Hitler was Austrian, I think). Apparently the law is still so important to the Austrians that the govt. was called upon to enforce it.

It brings up a point that I've often made that Americans have a tough time realizing that there are people out there that don't want democracy. They don't believe that certain freedoms that we protect, are important. I think holding up foreign peoples to our American ideals is why we have such a tough time in the Middle East.

A Marine buddy of mine who just retired after coming back from Iraq told me that the Iraqis that he met didn't know what personal freedom (as Americans know it) is. They don't think that freedom is decadent but that freedom is not as safe as being what we'd call "oppressed."

I personally don't think we can hold any country other than our own in check when it comes to the freedoms we enjoy. It might just come down to the over-simplification of what's really good and what's evil and why is there such a huge gray area in-between from society to society?

[scaleslea.livejournal.com]

Depending on the situation, he could be charged with incitement to riot. Was there an angry crowd?

There are people who have no problem with "proving" their point of view by shouting epithets (racial or otherwise) at an crowd until they get lynched and then claiming that the fact the crowd reacted to their words proves that the words are true.

Doc

[motherwell.livejournal.com]

First, I don't really see a "dangerous precedent;" AFAIK, Austrian law only bans people from publishing one particular lie, and I haven't heard of anyone (in Austria) proposing that other lies be added to the list. So it's really not fair to compare this to the theofascists' blanket demand for laws against all forms of "blasphemy."

Second, while I oppose such restrictions as Austria's, I really can't blame them for enacting it, given that they're trying to silence the continuation of a "big lie" that already destroyed Austria as a sovereign state, got a lot of their people killed, (both in the genocide itself and in the war that was waged to stop it), and is probably still an embarrassing sore-spot for Austrians. I'm sure that as time goes by, the law will remain on the books, but will eventually stop being enforced.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

what, like pre-marital sex in virginia? i don't think this will disappear so quietly...