Historian David Irving...

After reading one of Mr. Irving’s books, I have to say that the situation that he faces is sad. Put in prison for committing the crime of denying the holocaust. Basic freedoms stripped, individuals imprisoned for "thought crimes" all over Europe and we are next.

Historian Irving Barred From Speaking to PressNews

Posted on: 2006-03-09

Why is this any different from putting writers and thinkers in Stalin's Gulag?

by Ann Hendon ACCORDING TO the Irish Examiner, British historian David Irving (pictured, speaking at a National Vanguard meeting), who was convicted by an Austrian court of "denying the Holocaust" and sentenced to three years' imprisonment, has now been barred from speaking with the press, a court spokeswoman reportedly said today: 'Since a Vienna state court found Irving guilty last month and sentenced him to three years in prison, he has spoken to several news organisations. Alexandra Mathes, spokeswoman for the court, said it was unusual for a judge to grant reporters the right to interview a convict in the first place, but because media interest in Irving was so large, an exception was made.'That right was revoked yesterday, after Irving said "certain things" to media that could be grounds for him to face fresh charges, Mathes said. She declined to give examples.' Last week, Irving was interviewed by the Vienna daily Die Presse and the Austrian Press Agency. Mr. Irving compared Austria to a "Nazi state" and said that the nation's laws criminalizing the questioning of the Jewish Holocaust story were "ridiculous." When Mr. Irving spoke with the Associated Press on February 23, he opined that 'he had erred 17 years ago in contending there were no gas chambers at the Auschwitz concentration camp, calling it a "mistake in methodology." He also said that he accepted that millions of Jews died during the Second World War. However, Irving refused to use the word "Holocaust," describing it as a concept that "became cleverly marketed, like Tylenol." However, in a more recent interview last week, as reported by Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Irving implies his earlier comments were misinterpreted, prompting Austrian prosecutors to say they would have to act over a "fresh denial of the Holocaust" by the jailed historian. A spokesman of the state prosecution said: "We're going to have to react to that. We can't overlook it." Irving cast doubt on the number of victims in Auschwitz, and described a planned annihilation of the Jews as "absolutely wrong." The best-selling author and historian has been in Austrian custody since his arrest in November on charges stemming from two speeches he gave in Austria in 1989 -- in which he was accused of "denying" the German "extermination" of 6 million Jews, a claim which many historians and world leaders now reject. The Examiner states that 'both the defence and the prosecution have appealed against the three-year sentence.'