He's A Complete Jerk, But Three Years In Jail?
British crackpot David Irving (described by the Associated Press as a "right-wing British historian" in the first sentence of its article) has been sentenced to three years in prison in Austria for violating that country's law against denying the Holocaust.
Irving seems to have had a long-running battle with the Austrian government; the AP says he was charged in 1989 as a result of two speeches he gave in that year, and pled guilty under a law passed in 1992. (Yes, I know.) Here is the statute as quoted by the AP; it proscribes:
whoever denies, grossly plays down, approves or tries to excuse the National Socialist genocide or other National Socialist crimes against humanity in a print publication, in broadcast or other media.
David Irving is an awful human being, but it's pretty hard to take the high ground with regard to freedom of speech--over, say, the Danish cartoons--when you're sending people to jail for "grossly playing down" or "trying to excuse" Nazi crimes. Some say, of course, that for Europe the Holocaust is unique and deserves this special legal status. But then, the Muslims think Mohammed is unique, too. Once you start making exceptions of this sort, it's hard to know when to stop.
