Freedom of speech and freedom of the press in Denmark are ensured by ยง 77 of the constitution:
- Anyone is entitled to in print, writing and speech to publish his or hers thoughts, yet under responsibility to the courts. Censorship and other preventive measures can never again be introduced.
The phrase under responsibility to the courts provides the main concept of the freedom: the constitution grants one the freedom to say whatever they please, but does not protect them from being punished for doing so. The courts generally set wider boundaries for what is deemed inappropriate for the press or in a political debate than for civil citizens.
The major punishable acts are child pornography, libel, blasphemy, and hate speech/racism, which are restricted by the Danish penal code. Like most other countries, Denmark also forbids publishing classified material harmful to state security, copyright-protected material without permission and revealing trade secrets in the civil law.
In 2004, 2005, and 2009 Denmark received a joint first place in the Worldwide Press Freedom Index from Reporters Without Borders. In 2011-2012 Denmark was tied with Canada at tenth out of 179 in the index.
Read more about Freedom Of Speech And Freedom Of The Press In Denmark: Child Pornography, Libel, Blasphemy, Hate Speech and Racism, State Security
Famous quotes containing the words freedom of, freedom, speech and/or press:
“Freedom of conscience entails more dangers than authority and despotism.”
—Michel Foucault (1926–1984)
“Art is on the side of the oppressed. Think before you shudder at the simplistic dictum and its heretical definition of the freedom of art. For if art is freedom of the spirit, how can it exist within the oppressors?”
—Nadine Gordimer (b. 1923)
“Here we have the beautiful British compromise: a man can say anything, he mustn’t do anything; a man can listen to anything, but he musn’t be roused to do anything. By freedom of speech is meant freedom to talk about; speech is not saying-as-an-action.”
—Paul Goodman (1911–1972)
“As a medium of exchange,... worrying regulates intimacy, and it is often an appropriate response to ordinary demands that begin to feel excessive. But from a modernized Freudian view, worrying—as a reflex response to demand—never puts the self or the objects of its interest into question, and that is precisely its function in psychic life. It domesticates self-doubt.”
—Adam Phillips, British child psychoanalyst. “Worrying and Its Discontents,” in On Kissing, Tickling, and Being Bored, p. 58, Harvard University Press (1993)