The Comment Channel
Leading article: Free speech and the right to dissent
An Austrian court has sentenced the British historian David Irving to three years in prison for Holocaust denial in speeches delivered 17 years ago. Few in this country will shed many tears for an academic who never cared to hide his despicable views. And three years is far less than the maximum 10 years he could have been required to serve under Austrian law. But it is three years more than anyone should have to serve for exercising freedom of speech in a democracy.
Leading article: Defending the indefensible
The tone of John Reid's speech on the British Army at King's College London yesterday was severely misjudged. Speaking in the wake of new revelations of abuse by British troops in Iraq, the Defence Secretary ought to have made a frank admission of the damage this episode has done to the reputation of the British Army and to have pledged to ensure that nothing similar would happen again. Instead Mr Reid chose to recommend that we be "a little slower to condemn and a lot quicker to understand". He also insinuated disgracefully that the media is playing into the hands of terrorists by bringing such abuses to light.
