Freedom of speech and freedom of the press in Denmark are ensured by § 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:
“In April 1917 the illusion of isolation was destroyed, America came to the end of innocence, and of the exuberant freedom of bachelor independence. That the responsibilities of world power have not made us happier is no surprise. To help ourselves manage them, we have replaced the illusion of isolation with a new illusion of omnipotence.”
—Barbara Tuchman (1912–1989)
“A man may be a pessimistic determinist before lunch and an optimistic believer in the will’s freedom after it.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“There are certain things in which mediocrity is intolerable: poetry, music, painting, public eloquence. What torture it is to hear a frigid speech being pompously declaimed, or second-rate verse spoken with all a bad poet’s bombast!”
—Jean De La Bruyère (1645–1696)
“We have our difficulties, true; but we are a wiser and a tougher nation than we were in 1932. Never have there been six years of such far flung internal preparedness in all of history. And this has been done without any dictator’s power to command, without conscription of labor or confiscation of capital, without concentration camps and without a scratch on freedom of speech, freedom of the press or the rest of the Bill of Rights.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)