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But free speech does not guarantee them the right to be
United States, anybody in the world with access to a computer
treated as the other side of a legitimate debate. Nor does it
with a modem and Internet software will be able to download
guarantee them space on op-ed pages or time on television
their material in minutes for the cost of local telephone call.
and radio shows. Most important, it does not call for people
American principles of freedom of expression will therefore ulti-
such as Chomsky to stand by them and thereby commend
mately prevail everywhere. Increasingly a free market in ideas is
their views to the public. ... I reiterate that I am not advocat-
going to prevail, whether one likes it or not, and those who want
ing the muzzling of the deniers. They have the right to free
to put Holocaust revisionists in prison because they don t agree
speech, however abhorrent. However, they are using that
with their historical opinions are going to have to live with that
right not as a shield, as it was intended by the Constitution,
fact.
but as a sword. There is a qualitative difference between bar-
For the sake of brevity and clarity, I have almost exclusively
ring someone s right to speech and providing him or her with
examined above governmental and private legal action against the
a platform from which to deliver a message.58
deniers through the courts. I have not mentioned the extensive
She is critical of attempts to use the law to prosecute the deniers:
illegal violence that has been used against them by their enemies.
There are those who believe that the courtroom is the place to For instance, in 1984, the California premises of the Institute for
fight the deniers. This is where Austria, Germany, France, Historical Review, including the warehouse storing its books,
and Canada have mounted their efforts. ... The problem with were destroyed by a firebomb which caused hundreds of thou-
such legal maneuvers is that they are often difficult to sustain sands of dollars worth of damage and almost destroyed the IHR.
or carry through. ... It transforms the legal arena into a his- Bradley Smith has been subjected to continuous intimidation and
torical forum, something the courtroom was never designed threats of violence for disseminating Holocaust revisionism: when
to be. When historical disputes become lawsuits, the out- he lectured at Ohio State University in 1989, for instance, there
come is unpredictable. were 15 death threats and a bomb scare. In 1989, Robert Fauris-
son was walking his dog in a park near his home in Vichy when a
The main shortcoming of legal restraints is that they trans-
group of thugs kicked him with boots with iron toecaps, inflicting
form the deniers into martyrs on the altar of freedom of
severe facial injuries which required extensive plastic surgery. In
speech. ... The free-speech controversy can obscure the de-
niers antisemitism and turn the hate monger into a victim.59 1995 the home and premises of Ernst Zündel in Toronto were fire-
bombed, causing extensive damage. David Irving has been physi-
Indeed, US law has consistently protected the rights of Holocaust
cally assaulted while dining in a London restaurant and his home
revisionists to express their views. In 1984, the late David
has been broken into by a man wielding a sledgehammer. Book-
McCalden, a Holocaust denier, contracted to rent exhibit space at
shops throughout the provinces in Britain which have displayed
the California Library Association s annual conference in order to
his books have had their windows smashed until the offending
promote Holocaust revisionist publications. Two Jewish organisa-
publications have been withdrawn. Although these attacks on
tions the Simon Wiesenthal Centre and the American Jewish
bookshops have been reported in the local press, nothing about
Committee protested to both the city and the association, the
them has appeared in the national press. The printworks of the
latter organisation threatening to demonstrate outside the con-
Historical Review Press, a Sussex-based Holocaust revisionist
ference, and the association cancelled McCalden s contract.
publisher, have been subjected to several arson attacks.
17
In addition, informal pressure is applied to discourage the appear- who, when he lights on an interesting statement, begins by
ance of Holocaust revisionist material. For instance, the popular suspecting it. He remains in suspense until he has subjected
Japanese magazine Marco Polo carried an article denying that ex- his authority to three operations. First, he asks whether he
terminations had occurred at Auschwitz. The Israeli embassy and has read the passage as the author wrote it. For the tran-
the Simon Wiesenthal Centre complained, and the company which scriber, and the editor, and the official or officious censor on
published Marco Polo recalled all unsold copies of the offending top of the editor, have played strange tricks, and have much
edition and even closed down the entire magazine. An Italian to answer for. And if they are not to blame, it may turn out
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