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

[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...