Monday, January 31, 2011

Breaking News: Lars Hedegaard Acquitted!

I just learned via BCF that a Danish court has acquitted Lars Hedegaard of "hate speech". But I also learned via Tundra Tabloids that he seems to have gotten off on a technicality:
President of the Free Press Society, Lars Hedegaard, in the Court of Frederiksberg acquitted of racist statements.
The background is a good 35 minutes long interview to the site snaphanen.dk which Hedegaard gave in December 2009.

Here, said Hedegaard, among other things, that “girls in Muslim families are raped by their uncles, their cousins or their dad.”

The Court believes that Heath’s statements are insulting, but he was dismissed because he did not know that the interview that took place during a juleforkost, would be published...
Anyone know what a "juleforkost" is?

I await Hedegaard's comments to know exactly how to interpret the ruling. It appears to be a great victory for free speech, but, as in the Levant and Steyn cases in Canada, the trial in and of itself may have the effect of putting a chill on free speech (because who the heck would want to risk being tried for "thought crimes" by a Danish or a Canucki court?).

Update: In a post-acquittal statement, Hedegaard accentuates the positive.
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4 comments:

  1. Richard KJanuary 31, 2011 at 10:29 AM

    http://www.suite101.com/content/christmas-traditions-in-denmark--the-julefrokost-a323529

    Evidently, it's a Christmas party

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  2. Richard KJanuary 31, 2011 at 10:31 AM

    Or more to the point, it's a traditional Danish Christmas party involving a lot of alcohol

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  3. scaramoucheJanuary 31, 2011 at 10:34 AM

    Thanks for the info, Richard. In vino veritas, eh?

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  4. DKobservansJanuary 31, 2011 at 1:27 PM

    This is only a victory of hypocrisy!. Hedegaard only got acquitted because he didn't admit to what he said. This have NOTHING to do with freedom of speech. Danish law does NOT forbid you to say anything in your private home. Hedegaard claims that it was said at a private party and he didn't know it would be published

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