Denmark is a liberal democracy and one of the countries in the world that scores in the top range on almost any measure of human development and freedoms. Nevertheless, it too has been infected by the wave of progressive censorship and persecution that has been plaguing so many countries in the West in recent years.
Jaleh Tavakoli
Jaleh Tavakoli
One victim is the Danish-Iranian blogger Jaleh Tavakoli. She is an outspoken critic of Islam and author of the book Public Secrets of Islam. She is also a foster parent for an eight-year-old girl whom she has taken care of since birth.
Recently she received a letter from Danish Child Services that stated her status as a foster parent had been rescinded and her foster daughter might be taken away from her. The reason? She shared a video published by Moroccan jihadists showing the beheading of a Danish woman. The letter she received from Child Services said: “As a generally approved foster family, one assumes a special task in relation to taking care of children with special needs so that the family’s morality or ethics must not be questionable to any significant extent.”
She replied that she published the video because no Danish media outlet would tell the truth that the victim was beheaded, to which she got the response:
“…the way you, Jaleh, have chosen to expose yourself and communicate politically … can compromise your role as a foster parent.”
The letter sparked outrage among the Danish public when it received media coverage. The case has not yet been resolved, and it is still unclear whether Tavakoli will lose custody of her foster daughter, despite no suspicion of ill treatment of the child. Tavakoli’s only “crime” was to make use of her free speech.
24Nyt
Conservative alternative media outlets have grown familiar with the censorship of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Google. However, although their behavior is dubious, they are after all private corporations. In Denmark, the tax-financed government media outlet DR contacted Facebook to warn it of a small alternative media competitor 24Nyt that published in DR’s estimation politically incorrect news. Shortly thereafter, the competitor was removed from Facebook. DR commented on the removal as follows:
“Facebook confirms in a text message to DR News that, based on that study [which DR conducted of 24Nyt], they have closed 24Nyt, but have not yet elaborated on exactly what the reason is.”
These and other incursions into free speech have been conducted by Denmark’s own version of the Deep State: not by elected officials but by anonymous government bureaucrats who decide who gets to say what to the public, using intimidation and bullying to get their way.
As such, the bureaucrats are at odds with both the voters and their elected representatives. Denmark has for many years been the most immigration-skeptic country in Scandinavia, and the debate has in many ways been resolved by the center-left adopting the position of the right on Third World mass immigration. Denmark’s Deep State apparently didn’t get the memo.
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