Denmark,
Democracy and the Free Press
By
Soren Breiting
Ask
some Danes in the street of Copenhagen, the capital of
Denmark, about what is important to them. Many will answer
you that it is important that we have a country that is
safe, that all people get their basic supply of food,
have a decent place to live and have free access to the
hospital and to education. Many will formulate that it
is important to them as Danes that we have a well-functioning
democracy without corruption.
If
you talk more with people they would possibly argue, that
they appreciate a free press. Everybody should be allowed
to speak up and give their opinion on all kinds of issues
in the community, including on religion. In fact in most
cases religion isn’t a big issue for modern Danes
and in Denmark people have a right to practice their own
religion.
As
a very small country Danes are aware that we are just
a small sand corn in the global sea of sand. But due to
the focus on democracy and how to improve equality globally
Denmark has for many years been keen on developmental
aid. The later years this has ceased a little but still
it is a fundamental thing among Danes to try to make the
world a little bit better.
As
an example I can mention that I was assigned to be a part
of an effort of the Ministry of Thailand to ‘Strengthening
Environmental Education in Thailand’ (The SEET Project).
This 4 years work was initiated by the host country, Thailand,
and partly funded by 0.80 USD from each of the 5 million
inhabitants in Denmark through the tax system. Formally
the project was funded under the agency DANCED, later
under DANIDA, and the project had very strong democratic
aspects build in.
For
Danes it is difficult to separate the importance of democracy
from the long term caring for the environment in Denmark
and world wide. Back in the late 1960s the environmental
movement in Denmark would never have had that important
impact without the free press in Denmark. All Danish newspapers
are independent of the government and most are more or
less independent of political parties, too. But of cause
they have their different basic attitudes that for each
newspaper will be closer to some political parties than
to others.
The environmental movement in Denmark
was for years in strong opposition to the government and
to the establishment of business. But with the critical
attitude to community issues we love the newspapers for
keeping the public debate going. In the case of environmental
matters it sparked a strong environmental priority among
some political parties and in the government as such at
that time. Effects of that are still highly viable: Denmark
is regarded as the ‘windmill hub’ of the world,
and we escaped from having nuclear power plans in our
small country.
That
would never have happened without democracy and a free
press in Denmark.
Soren
Breiting is an associate professor at the Danish University
of Education, http://www.DPU.dk . See Soren's pictures
from Denmark
at http://www.azfotos.com/countries_worldwide/europe/denmark/denmark.htm
and read more about Denmark
at http://www.denmark-danmark.com
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Soren Breiting
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