Whanganui Chronicle
  • Whanganui Chronicle home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Taranaki
  • National Park
  • Whakapapa
  • Ohakune
  • Raetihi
  • Taihape
  • Marton
  • Feilding
  • Palmerston North

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • New Plymouth
  • Whanganui
  • Palmertson North
  • Levin

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Whanganui Chronicle

Denmark: Socially liberal views and official consequences

By Fred Frederikse
Columnist·Wanganui Midweek·
7 Mar, 2021 09:44 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

COMMENT

Millisphere: A discrete region inhabited by roughly one-thousandth of the world population.

Technically Denmark (2020 population 5.4 million) includes Greenland and the Faroe Islands but in a previous millisphere I had lumped them in with Iceland, Finland, Alaska and the indigenous people living within the Arctic Circle to make up the millisphere I called "North Pole".

Before WWII Iceland had belonged to Denmark but had turned itself over to the then neutral USA in 1941 and is now independent. Today the Faroes and Greenland enjoy a degree of autonomy from Denmark.

Home to IKEA, Lego, Carlsberg beer and Maersk shipping containers, Denmark is a Nordic Lutheran welfare state well known for its socially liberal views and in recent times has been embroiled in a global debate on free speech.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Pornography was legalised in 1969 and the Danes allowed "gender neutral" marriage before same-sex marriage was adopted elsewhere. In 2009 the Danish royal family moved to "absolute primogeniture" - if the first born is a girl she becomes the new monarch, not her younger brother and in 2020 Denmark pushed Switzerland out of the top position on the world environmental performance index.

Recently I have come to know Frank, a Dane, who as a 17-year-old musician was involved with the anarchist commune of Christiania which started in 1971 as a hippie squat on 19 acres of abandoned army barracks.

In defiance of the state laws they proposed a self governing society where "everyone held themselves responsible for the wellbeing of the entire community" - which included drug addicts - and they made their own rules. Pusher St, their "green light district", became one of Copenhagen's main tourist attractions.

When international bands like Pink Floyd played Copenhagen the after concert party was at Christiania. "The music scene was magic," Frank remembers.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Since the 2000s Christiania has come under increased state pressure. Police invaded in 2007, demolishing unpermitted houses and introduced a policy of zero tolerance.

A police request for drug sales to be "less visible" was responded to by draping camouflage nets over the stalls. In 2016 a Bosnian, carrying the day's takings, shot two police and a civilian during a police raid. The residents then voted to remove the drug stalls - but they sprang up again.

The process of "normalisation" in Christiania is ongoing. The Danish state refused to recognise the collective - only individuals they said - and they are still trying to force the 1000 odd residents, who are opposed to individual ownership, to buy the property they have occupied for more than 40 years.

The entrance to the special quarter freetown Christiania. Copenhagen, Denmark. Photo / Getty Images
The entrance to the special quarter freetown Christiania. Copenhagen, Denmark. Photo / Getty Images

Denmark's "worst international relations incident since WWII", according to their Prime Minister, started when in 2005 the ring-wing Jyllands-Posten newspaper pushed the boundaries of free speech.

Discover more

Milking students pumped by job opportunities

10 Mar 04:00 PM

NZ farmers are 'so lucky', says Whanganui commentator

10 Mar 04:00 PM

Seal of approval for driftwood sculpture

08 Mar 04:00 PM

Pattillo Whanganui Arts Review winners announced

05 Mar 04:00 PM

Free speech was self evident in liberal Denmark, the paper opined, this piece of journalism was to be about self censorship. Danish cartoonists were approached to submit cartoons depicting the prophet Mohamed. Some declined, citing contractual obligations but 12 responded.

After publication all hell broke loose. Representations of the prophet Mohamed are considered blasphemous by most Muslims, let alone cartoons depicting him as a bomb wearing a turban. Imams and entire Muslim countries condemned Denmark for allowing the cartoons to be published and Danish exports to the Middle East dropped by 50 per cent.

The incident sparked a global debate on free speech. The Danish government had lived without censorship since the Nazi occupation and held that free speech was one of their intrinsic values. There is a Danish tradition of satire, they reiterated.

In the spirit of "journalist solidarity" the French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, republished the cartoons in 2011. In 2015 two French Muslim brothers forced their way into the offices of Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 and wounding 11, and in 2016 another Muslim gunman attacked a meeting in Copenhagen organised to discuss free speech.

The Danish government has recently required that sermons given in a foreign language be translated and supplied to local authorities. Five per cent of Danes are Muslim and 50 per cent of them believe criticism of religion should be censored.

Jyllands-Posten has just published a cartoon depicting the Chinese flag but with yellow coronaviruses instead of stars. This time it is the Chinese who are outraged.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Subscribe to Premium
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Premium
Lifestyle

Gareth Carter: Plants to attract birds

20 Jun 05:00 PM
Whanganui Chronicle

'A team game': How Whanganui is preparing for another major flood

20 Jun 05:00 PM
Whanganui Chronicle

Leaders recall Whanganui’s biggest flood 10 years on

20 Jun 05:00 PM

Jono and Ben brew up a tea-fuelled adventure in Sri Lanka

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Premium
Gareth Carter: Plants to attract birds

Gareth Carter: Plants to attract birds

20 Jun 05:00 PM

Comment: There are food sources that have a stronger attraction for certain birds.

'A team game': How Whanganui is preparing for another major flood

'A team game': How Whanganui is preparing for another major flood

20 Jun 05:00 PM
Leaders recall Whanganui’s biggest flood 10 years on

Leaders recall Whanganui’s biggest flood 10 years on

20 Jun 05:00 PM
Premium
Nicky Rennie: What Jim Rohn taught me about new beginnings

Nicky Rennie: What Jim Rohn taught me about new beginnings

20 Jun 04:00 PM
Help for those helping hardest-hit
sponsored

Help for those helping hardest-hit

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Whanganui Chronicle e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Whanganui Chronicle
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP