Danish McCarthyists on the March

Freedom of speech is again being threatened in Denmark, this country that was the big champion of this fundamental right during the Mohammed cartoons crisis a year ago.

This time it is the representative of the Danish People's Party (DPP) in the European Parliament Mogens Camre (photo) and Morten Messerschmidt, backbench MP of the DPP in the Danish Folketing. The two gentlemen have not been in the media for some time, and they probably feel an acute need to "get on", be part of the big political show, and get some attention, so they can successfully run for reelection in the next election.

So now they are launching a new initiative of "Critical Feepayers" that are supposed to look at the public service TV and radio in Denmark, in order to get some "value" in terms of "objective reporting" for the license fees they and the voters they claim to represent are paying to the institution.

The two politicians have sent a letter to the Danish government (that depends on the DPP for parliamentary support in parliament) in which they demand that "the government takes action against 'politicising activity' in the DR".

According to an interview in Danish paper the Politiken today, Messerschmidt says that the "leftist journalists" in DR (Danish public service Radio and TV) should be dismissed if they are not capable of making more "objective" news.

When he is asked by the Politiken for a definition of "leftist", he seems to be at a loss for an answer. He just has a vague feeling that the broadcasts are leftist.

This seems to be a bit odd. Actually the institution is being criticised by the Danish Left for being too rightist, for instance in its coverage of the Iraq war, in which Denmark participates with troops.