Douglas Murray Douglas Murray

The cowardly and hypocritical media abandons Lars Hedegaard

It is now three days since a European journalist was visited at his door by an assassin. For three days I have waited for any response to this.

The BBC reported the story in brief, as did the Mail and the Guardian posted the Associated Press story.

But where are all the free-speech defenders? Where are all those brave blogs, papers and journals who like to talk about press freedom, human rights, freedom of expression, anti-extremism and so on? Where are all the campaigners? I have been scouring the internet and apart from Mark Steyn at National Review and Bruce Bawer at Frontpage, and a few other US conservative blogs, hardly anybody seems willing even to report events in Copenhagen on Tuesday.

What explanation can there possibly be for this silence? Allow me some guesses:

Lars Hedegaard is a 70 year old white conservative male who is critical of Islamic fundamentalism. He enjoys none of the currently approved ‘minority’ statuses that might have allowed more people to leap to his defence.

Two years ago Lars was outrageously put on trial in Denmark for discussing honour killings in his own home. Nothing he said should ever have been the subject of such a trial. As it was (and as the BBC and others were forced to correct in their reports) the charges against him were dismissed on appeal. But I know that a certain type of otherwise ‘brave’ journalist gets the heebie-jeebies thinking they might be even within a million miles of defending anyone who was once near a courtroom on speech-crime charges.

I can see the ‘liberal’ blogosphere contorting themselves over this. Yes, he was let off. Perhaps it was all fine. But isn’t it all a bit close? All rather uncomfortable? “I’m happy to defend freedom of speech, but it must be speech I absolutely agree with, otherwise it’s all off.

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