Danish party urges Arab TV ban

[pampango]

Source: Al Jazeera

Pia Kjærsgaard, leader of the far-right Danish People's Party, is calling for a ban on satellite antennas in residential areas with large immigrant populations in Denmark. She has since pushed for the national broadcasting authority to prevent Al Jazeera and other Arab satellite channels from broadcasting in Denmark. Kjærsgaard accuses them of "broadcasting indoctrination from the Middle Eastern world", and "inoculating the viewers in Denmark to hate Denmark and the West".

The controversial proposal has so far been met with criticism from the Danish People's Party's coalition partners ... Although both main parties disagree with the proposed ban, they fundamentally agree with the People's Party's claims - as a spokesman for the conservatives put it - that Arab channels "espouse anti-Jewish and anti-Western propaganda".

But banning Arab channels will give the impression that Denmark is suppressing Arab points of view, the spokesman said. The current government has relied on Kjærsgaard and the People's Party for its majority since 2001, when the coalition came to power following campaign laced with anti-immigration rhetoric.

Meanwhile, opposition parties are outraged, describing the People's Party's proposal as a "desperate" attempt to maintain its grip on the debate on Muslims and immigrants in Denmark. The main opposition party, the Social Democrats, thinks that it is "un-Danish" to forbid people from deciding which TV channels they can access. "We live in Denmark, not in North Korea or China," the party has said.

Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/11/2010111134217747559.html

[closeupready]

1. Denmark Uber Alles? Disgusting.

:mad: Danes should throw Pia out on her ass.

[pattmarty]

2. Jesus, they got their "tea partiers" too.

[harun]

3. Thought police.

[McCamy Taylor]

4. If Al Qaeda's goal was to rob Europe of its "freedoms" they sure have suceeded!

There is a phrase for what is happening in Europe. It is called "cutting off your nose to spite your face."

[David__77]

5. We cannot dismiss this as a "right-wing" position entirely.

I do not agree with this proposed policy at all, but I suspect that it attracts sympathy from nominally left-wing individuals who wish to maintain the secular, progressive nature of the society-at-large. To the extreme, East Germany at some points employed similar measures to keep out "anti-socialist propaganda." I see similarities between the two cases, in fact.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

6. Yes. We. Can.

This is lunacy. Period.