Victory for Irving
Vol. 13, Number 6 (Nov./Dec. 1993)
[Transcription note: for another perspective on Irving's failure to
make headway in Australia, see the 1995
Australian Federal Court judgment, and the 1996
Australian Federal Court judgment, both of which denied him entry
into the country. knm, 98/08/14]
Censorship Update from Down Under
In an important victory for free speech and open debate on the Holocaust
issue, Australia's Federal Court on September 16 unanimously overturned an
earlier decision by immigration authorities to reject the visa application
of
David Irving. Any decision about a visa application by
Irving, the high
court ruled, must now be reconsidered "by law." There now appears to be no
legal bar to visits by the bestselling British revisionist historian, who
immediately announced plans for a six-week lecture tour.
The high court also ordered the Australian government to foot the total
bill of more than $100,000 in legal costs in the case, including
Irving's
own legal expenses of $22,000.
In an editorial commenting on the Federal Court decision, the Melbourne
Herald Sun (Sept. 18) offered some advice:
The Jewish community vocally opposed his [
Irving's] visit. This was a
tactical error. It elevated
Mr. Irving to martyr status, and ensured a
level of publicity he did not merit. The sensible course for
Australian Jews now is to ignore him.
Irving thus once again finds himself at the forefront in the free
speech struggle against the international campaign to suppress dissident
views on the Holocaust issue. "The fight is colossal," says
Irving, a
Journal contributor. (For more on this, see the Jan.-Feb. 1993 Journal, pp. 12-19.)
"I think my opponents have underestimated the tenacity of the English,"
says
Irving. "We have a tendency in England when we hear gunfire not to
move away from it but, out of a sheer sense of bloody-minded curiosity, to
go and find out what the gunfire's about..." (Herald Sun, May 20)
Following Australia's example, New Zealand has recently repealed its
own ban on
Irving's entry. Officials there still won't let him speak in
public, though. "We shall see!," says
Irving.
The "fight" began late last year when
Irving, planning to combine a
six-week lecture tour with attending the wedding of his daughter to an
Australian, contacted ten (mostly Jewish) heads of university history
departments in an attempt to arrange debates on matters historical.
Although not one of those contacted responded to the offer, news of his
plans triggered a campaign to bar him from the country. Citing earlier
alleged exclusions of him from Austria, Canada, Italy, and South Africa,
some legal setbacks in Germany, and the sometimes violent controversy over
his works in Britain, Jewish groups argued that this was not an issue of
free speech, but rather one of public safety.
Bowing to pressure, Immigration Minister Gerry Hand decided in February
to deny
Irving's visa application on the grounds that he was "likely to
become involved in activities disruptive to, or violence threatening harm
to, the Australian community or a group within the Australian community."
(For more on this, see the May-June 1993 Journal, pp. 13-16.) As matters
turned out, Hand was not entirely incorrect, although the disruption and
violence came not from
Irving (or his supporters), but from his enemies.
As Australia's leading daily newspapers have plainly acknowledged,
efforts to bar
Irving from the country have come almost entirely from the
Jewish community.
Irving has served libel writs against five major Jewish
personalities and periodicals.
By denying
Irving a visa, Australian immigration authorities had
implied that the internationally renowned researcher, author, and lecturer
is as dangerous as four Serbian terrorists -- the only others to be refused
entry into Australia in a similar manner out of 1.68 million visa applicants
in 1991-92. (Martin Daly, The Age, Feb. 16.)
An editorial in the Newcastle Herald (May 21) made a related point:
A worrying aspect of the ban on
Mr. Irving is that it is selective. In
1987, the Foreign Affairs Department brought the then leader-in-exile
of the African National Congress, Mr. Oliver Tambo, to Australia for a
tour. This was despite the fact that Mr. Tambo's much-publicised visit
was expected to polarise opinion, and did. However, there was no
violence on that occasion and there would probably have been none if
Mr. Irving's opponents and the Federal Government alike had been
prepared to let him make his tour without surrounding it with
controversy.
The
original plaintext version
of this file is available via
ftp.
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in Australia Free Speech Struggle
The Journal of Historical Review
VICTORY FOR
IRVING IN AUSTRALIA FREE SPEECH STRUGGLE
Background
A Dangerous Man?