David Irving: holocaust denial and free speech

Given my attitude to David Irving, his conviction and sentence in Austria and his questionable release, as shown in my earlier posts, I thought I’d better explain my position since many people who are far from supportive of holocaust denial nonetheless feel Austrian law goes too far in criminalising it.

I disagree. I think freedom of expression is fundamental to democratic society, and in almost all contexts you will find me arguing for free expression and against any form of http://www.gooakley.com/ censorship. For instance I strongly supported campaigns by the National Secular Society and Rowan Atkinson against the government’s proposed religious hatred legislation. What’s more, I’d oppose any attempt to make holocaust denial an offence in England. Our freedom to think and say what we like is too precious for that kind of thing.

But Austria is not England – and before anyone gets the wrong idea, let me say I write this as someone who knows Austria pretty well, and as a serious Austrophile. The fact is that the Nazis did once run Austria and murdered Jews there – a history which I think changes everything. As part of Austria’s transformation into a modern, democratic society I think it was entirely legitimate for it to decide holocaust denial should be seriously punished. It isn’t that I think freedom of expression that’s essential here is too good for Austria – no. It’s that I think restrictions on free speech that would be unthinkable here are understandable there, and deserve support.

There’s a strand in British thinking that wants to criticise any German and for some reason especially any Austrian action or inaction about the holocaust. People here Ray Ban outlet have criticised Austrians for electing Kurt Waldheim as president, and for voting in large numbers for Haider’s old Freedom Party (he’s now abandoned them to set up a new “Movement for the Future of Austria”). Fair enough. But if we want to criticise them for those things, I think it’s a bit rich at the same time to criticise them for dealing severely with the likes of Irving. Any kind of neo-Nazism is a serious issue in Austria and the authorities deserve our support in tackling it hard.

A final thought: only days ago, extremists and fruitcakes gathered in Iran to indulge in a festival of holocaust denial and anti-semitism (a shame perhaps we don’t know whether Irving would have attended had he been able to) and did so with impunity. Because of the laws I’ve defended in this post, you can be sure Austria is one country such a meeting will not take place.