Zephyr Illusions photo by donna October 1992. The view atop Chasseral, Jura Mountains looking across Switzerland to The Alps on the horizon. Fog, intensely thick, rising from Lac Bienne and stretching its fingers high onto the Lignières-Plateau de Diesse after wholly filling the valley below the plateau.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Bad Taste, Insensitivity and Censorship Laws

"There is no doubt that in the Netherlands and Poland alike such publication is violating the law."

I think it can safely be said that most people would find a promotional video spoofing the Auschwitz death camp as a rave party to be in extremely poor taste, but are there really laws in Poland and The Netherlands outlawing the publication of such?
Given the fact that The Netherlands and her citizens suffered greatly during World War II, it surprises me that a Dutch organization would even consider to produce and distribute a video of this theme, especially as an advertisement for a festival to be held on Liberation Day. but, what Dutch law deems such profound public insensitivity to be illegal? i'll be very surprised to find out that such a law really exists in Dutch society.

1 comment:

  1. thanks for pointing me to Geenstijl.nl, Prof. ook, bedankt voor een 'Nederlands alert' :p
    i will make some efforts to translate and read the site. i came across this very website when i tried to find more information on the story. unfortunately, i am not perfectly bilingual, as are you, :) so i'll just try to glean the major points.

    you bring up an important point about the current tactics of modern day warfare... i suppose it has become a reality that laws which (perhaps unintentionally) threaten to impinge upon basic human rights and freedoms will be adopted and enacted.
    hate crimes are not to be conned in any civil society, but i think it is sometimes a blurry fuzzy line separating freedom of expression and criminal activity. unfortunately, it's difficult to know just how much faith to hold in humanity's sense of basic respect for one another before we turn to legislation in order to limit freedoms.

    and, btw, since you ask.... it's 'deterrent'. you were very close. hehehe, even i, a native american English speaker had to look up the spelling. i couldn't remember if it's spelled with 2 t's or 2 r's. therefore, no points deducted on your bilingual fluency rating ;)
    :)

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