Germany revives hate debate
The German government is attempting to revive their proposal for an EU-wide minimum sentence for incitement to racial hatred and genocide denial and, not entirely surprisingly, a number of other states are trying to widen the scope of the proposals.
Estonia, Poland and Slovenia - all carrying the burden of a communist past - demand that denial of the crimes of totalitarian regimes, including communism, should be explicitly mentioned in the text, with one EU diplomat saying “the aim is to achieve morally equal treatment of the crimes of the Nazis and communism.”
The German initiative has also seen the Poles attempt to add-on a clause saying that using the phrase “Polish death camps” in the media should be banned, as it suggests Poles, not German Nazis, built and ran the camps on occupied Polish land.
This really highlights the problem with these types of laws. Everyone can find something with which to take offence - this is true both for individuals and nations (or, more accurately, individuals’ national pride).
One of the consequences of living in a free society is that people will say things that we find offensive - and we will undoubtedly offend others, often without realising it. When people forget this and start talking banning certain types of speech, it is tempting (at the very least) for everyone else to try to get their own points of touchiness included - and very difficult to reasonably refuse. If all of these requests are accommodated, the whole thing quickly snowballs so that anything that might offend anyone gets added to the list of unacceptable statements.
The German government are keen on giving a clear signal at the EU level of being ready to combat racism and xenophobia and this is a laudable aim. Using the legal system to make grand gestures, however, is not the way to achieve it.
Monday 19 Feb 2007 | Paul | EU
