From gmcgath@mv.mv.com Thu Dec 28 19:42:49 PST 1995
Article: 64389 of soc.culture.german
Newsgroups: soc.culture.german,alt.censorship
Path: nizkor.almanac.bc.ca!news.island.net!news.bctel.net!imci2!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.sprintlink.net!mv!condes.mv.com!user
From: gmcgath@mv.mv.com (Gary McGath)
Subject: German prosecution of "speech crimes"
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Organization: Conceptual Design
Date: Thu, 28 Dec 1995 13:34:54 GMT
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Xref: nizkor.almanac.bc.ca soc.culture.german:64389 alt.censorship:59249

With the German government having censored hundreds of newsgroups on
CompuServe, it's a good time to recall some other outrages which
the German government has perpetrated against freedom of speech.

In August, the long arm of the German government reached into Denmark
to arrest an American for speechcrime. Denmark, under pressure from the
German government, arrested one Gary Lauck from Nebraska on charges of
"propagating racial hatred, xenophobia and neo-Nazi propaganda". The
alleged speech crimes which he committed occurred in the U.S. Thus, the 
German government has already arrested people outside its borders for
alleged violations of its speech laws which occurred outside its 
borders. CompuServe has good reason to be scared.

Ultimately, the heirs of Hitler can't stop the flow of speech across
its borders; but they can wreck a lot of lives in slowing it up, and 
they can impede it even outside their borders. Only those Germans who
value free speech are in a position to do much about this. I hope that
some Germans will be in a position to fight the building of a Berlin
Cyberwall around their country. (Yes, Hitler was a National Socialist
and the Berlin Wall was built by Communists; but the two differ only
in details, not in their underlying lust for power and hostility toward
all forms of liberty.)

-- 
Gary McGath      gmcgath@mv.mv.com
http://www.mv.com/users/gmcgath
One world, one vendor, one Web browser? No, thanks!


Newsgroups: alt.censorship,soc.culture.german,alt.conspiracy
Subject: Re: German prosecution of "speech crimes"
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In article , 
gmcgath@mv.mv.com (Gary McGath) wrote:

>In August, the long arm of the German government reached into Denmark
>to arrest an American for speechcrime. Denmark, under pressure from the
>German government, arrested one Gary Lauck from Nebraska on charges of
>"propagating racial hatred, xenophobia and neo-Nazi propaganda". The
>alleged speech crimes which he committed occurred in the U.S. Thus, the 
>German government has already arrested people outside its borders for
>alleged violations of its speech laws which occurred outside its 
>borders. CompuServe has good reason to be scared.

Interesting case. The German government issued an international arrest 
warrant for Lauck, charging him with distributing illegal propaganda 
and Nazi symbols (in Germany), incitement, encouraging racial hatred 
and belonging to a criminal group, according to press reports.
He was not charged for something he did in the United States,
but for something he did in Germany. I assume that the United
States would have ignored the warrant, had Lauck remained
there. The violations, however, occured within German borders
- Lauck reportedly imported the lion's share of Nazi
propaganda into Germany for a period of twenty years, and
circulated a Nazi newspaper, "NS Kampfruf," within Germany.

Even more interesting, given your comment about pressure being
brought to bear on the Danish government (by Germany) is one
found in press reports which notes that, according to Danish
law, a person can _only_ be extradited if the offense he or
she is accused of is illegal in Denmark. In this case, the
Danish Supreme Court found that the offenses were all illegal
under Danish law, and denied Lauck's appeal.

Comments like those quoted from Lauck's "newspaper" were
deemed to be direct calls for the murder of Jews - news
reports note that Lauck did not contradict the translations as
they were read before the court: "Jews are a plague. They have
worms inside, and these worms must be killed," and "Jews are
our calamity. Out with the Jews. Only NSDAP/AO can help."

Perhaps what both the German people and the Danish courts were
saying is that they've heard it all before, and they have seen
the brutal and murderous consequences, first-hand. They have
no desire to see it again.

Lauck was reportedly attending a Nazi convention in Denmark,
hence the request for his arrest from the German government.

For information about Gerhard Lauck, who called directly for
the extermination of "Non-white races" during a June 1994 CBS
Television interview ("Hitler and Stalin: Legacy of Hate") in
unequivocal language, point your browsers at URL

ftp://ftp.almanac.bc.ca/pub/people/l/lauck.gerhard  - the
press directory contains a few articles about his arrest and
extradition proceedings.

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