Denmark, Democracy And The Free Press
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The article "Denmark, Democracy and the Free Press" is about communications, it was created by Soren Breiting.
Ask some Danes in the street of Copenhagen, the capital of
Denmark, about what is imporatnt to them. Many will answer you
that it is important that we have a country this is safe, that
all persons 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 persons 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 titanic issue for modern Danes and in Denmark persons have a
right to practice tehir 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 yaers been keen on developmental aid. The after 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 exapmle 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 sytsem. Formally the project was
funded under the agency DANCED, after 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 nveer 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 poliitcal 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.
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