20 February, 2006 | Leave a Comment

Aside from bird flu mania, the big news story here is that British “historian” David Irving has just been sentenced to three years in an Austrian prison for denying the Holocaust. The charges stem from speeches he gave in Austria in 1989 in which he claimed that there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz and that the Holocaust was a myth. He had been barred from visiting Austria but was arrested when he entered the country last November. Apparently, he was shocked when his harsh sentence was announced today.

Many countries in Europe have laws against Holocaust denial, including France, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and Spain. In 1997, a similar bill to outlaw Holocaust denial in Britain failed.

Irving is obviously a vile anti-Semite and racist, yet his prosecution and imprisonment is chilling. Freedom of expression has been the topic du jour in Europe recently, given the hoopla surrounding the Muhammad cartoons. Irving’s conviction raises unsettling questions about double-standards in the law and it undermines everyone fighting to defend and protect freedom of expression. Isn’t the right of David Irving to spew his repugnant lies the ultimate test of free speech?

At his trial, Irving claimed he no longer held his anti-Semitic views, though this is hard to believe. But his conviction just makes him a martyr to neo-Nazi groups and in my opinion, will ultimately do more harm than good.

Links:
BBC
Guardian

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1. Anonymous Says:

   February 21st, 2006 at 1:57 am

   There is no such thing as freedom of speech.

2. Tim Says:

   February 21st, 2006 at 7:57 pm

   This is a great example of something I totally agree with you on. As idiotic as it is to deny the Holocaust ever happened, he should have every right to SAY that it did not. If they have so much prison space over there that they are willing to imprison people on that basis, maybe we could them some of our inmates?

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