This article was originally published in Danish on April 24, 2020.
At first glance, this could appear to be a description of the Danish government’s actions, where the freedoms enshrined in the constitution have been effectively suspended without any discussion whatsoever, where people can no longer gather freely, not even to share a beer with their neighbor, where businesses have been forced to close and many people’s livelihoods have been threatened.
This government has, to the highest degree, committed a coup against the people, but the media does not seem to be focusing on Denmark at all. However, Jyllands-Posten mentions a number of other countries where governments have resorted to extraordinary measures. Hungary is, of course, not missing from this list.
Orban has declared a state of emergency, which will be extended by parliament for as long as the crisis lasts. Doesn’t that remind us of something we know? When it comes to Hungary, it is of course because Orban is the favorite whipping boy of EU supporters and because the press is banned from spreading “fake news.” Journalists rightly consider this a threat to their livelihood, which consists precisely in spreading such “news.” If you took them out of the newspapers, there wouldn’t be much left of them. May they all go to their graves!
Bolivia, which for many years was the darling of the press under the now deposed communist leader Evo Morales, who has had to go into exile to avoid prosecution for abuse of power. Now the interim president has postponed parliamentary elections indefinitely, as it is difficult to predict how long the crisis will last. At the same time, there is a strict curfew – just like in France, Italy, Spain… What is so worrying about that? Bolivia’s problems are of a nature and magnitude that – as experience has shown – cannot be left to a random coca farmer.
Just as France has postponed the second round of municipal elections, Russia has postponed a referendum on the new constitution – also indefinitely, i.e. until the crisis is over. It is difficult to hold a referendum when around 25 million people in Moscow city and county are in quarantine and are not allowed to move more than 100 meters from their homes to take out the trash, walk their dogs, if they have one, and shop once a day at the nearest store. It is now reported that similar measures will be extended to the whole country, and that attempts will be made to prevent people from the cities from fleeing to the countryside. Like France, we would not have held an election or a referendum today. But when it comes to Russia, it suddenly becomes odious with the absurd claim that Putin wants to “avoid a humiliating defeat.” I don’t know where people get the idea that Putin would suffer a defeat. Journalists are simply in an echo chamber with people who only confirm their own opinions. People are currently dissatisfied with the restrictions and with Putin sending aid to Italy – which is probably not only due to the goodness of his heart, but also a desire to weaken an EU that has not sent Italy any aid. Ordinary people do not see the advantages of this move, and one cannot really expect them to. But when they stand in the voting booth, most of them will still vote for Putin, because he has revived the country after Yeltsin – that is obvious to anyone who lived through that period – and, above all, there is no alternative to Putin. The so-called opposition consists of buffoons whom virtually no one wants to see in any position of leadership. Putin stands for stability and efficiency – and stability in particular is what Russia needs. The Russians are well aware of this – and they are more than happy to forego gay pride parades and other forms of Western decadence. This may be inconceivable to people who have become accustomed to living in a septic tank, but the overwhelming majority in Russia do not want the conditions we have in the West. And thank God for that.
However, Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, who cannot exactly be accused of being a Putin mouthpiece, is quoted as rightly pointing out that the global health crisis also confirms the president and his allies in their worldview and skepticism toward international organizations. “The fragility of globalization is becoming apparent as the international community becomes increasingly fragmented and the liberal order is in retreat,” he writes in the Moscow Times, which in itself is a good example of the fact that there is indeed freedom of the press in Russia.
But is there freedom of the press in Denmark? When foreign media praise their countries’ governments, they are not free in the eyes of Jyllands-Posten – but when Danish media unquestioningly praise Mette Frederiksen in glowing terms, it is apparently a sign of extreme freedom of the press. Let’s be clear: media outlets that, in addition to VAT exemption, receive billions in state subsidies – and an extra sum as “Corona aid” – cannot be free! You don’t bite the hand that feeds you! But that’s not all. The entire Danish print media is, as if compelled by an invisible hand, bound by the discourse. As George Orwell writes:
“At any given time, there is an orthodoxy, a set of ideas that are accepted by all right-thinking people without question. It is not strictly forbidden to say this or that, but it is not something ‘one does’… Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds that he is silenced with astonishing efficiency. An opinion that really goes against what is fashionable is almost never given fair treatment, either in the popular press or in the intellectual journals.”
One need only think of the Corona madness, climate, immigration, human rights, democracy, etc. There is no discussion. Occasionally, interviews or letters to the editor with divergent opinions are published, but these are simply ignored in the overall discourse. It is as if they had never been written.
Free media is media like this! Media that stands on its own and therefore has the freedom to say what it wants! We are only accountable to our readers, whose increased support and backing we would greatly appreciate. However, we have no further influence on the aforementioned orthodoxy – unless our readers pull themselves together and force a change in the orthodoxy!
Povl H. Riis-Knudsen
Translated with the help of AI
Danmarks Frihedsraad 