JAIL FOR HOLOCAUST DENIERS?

A right-wing British historian has been sentenced to three years in jail by an Austrian court after he admitted he had denied the existence of the holocaust. Now, I certainly think the holocaust existed (I lost an aunt and uncle, and an unknown number of their children), and I think that holocaust denial should be countered whenever it occurs. But I don't think throwing people in jail for it is the right way to go.

I believe in the power of free speech. I believe that if falsehoods such as holocaust denial are freely met with the truth, most people will recognize the truth eventually. Jailing the disseminators of falsehoods just makes them martyrs. It drives their ideas underground, where they cannot be met with the truth, and where they can grow unmolested. Making holocaust denial a crime is short-sighted and counter-productive.