David Irving Accepts History (Too Late)

I have to confess: Even as a rabid free-speech advocate, I didn’t lose much sleep last night about David Irving’s conviction for Holocaust denial. While the European press debates the three-year prison sentence handed down to Irving by a Viennese judge, American newspapers seem largely content for the moment to let wire services handle the story for them…which means they’re missing out on interesting details like Irving’s allocution that he acknowledged the extent of the Holocaust and the judge’s refusal to believe that Irving meant it, which frankly does raise chilling concerns about criminalizing speech acts—and of course the whole issue of free speech resonates in a climate where media are afraid to publish cartoons because religious fanatics might take it as an opportunity for riot and murder.

One psuedonymous blogger points out a significant flaw in the verdict: “Not only are laws against Holocaust denial an offense against free speech, but they don’t work. They suppress nothing. David Irving got more publicity in Austria than he had gotten in six years. Before, he was fading into well-deserved obscurity. Now he’s a martyr for the far right.”

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