Editor's note: The subject of political repression of free speech is a complex subject that we cannot discuss here. We would like, however, to point out the similarity between the new European Union laws on "racial incitement" and Article 59-7 of the 1934 Criminal Code of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic: "Propaganda or agitation, directed toward arousing national or religious enmity or discord, or likewise the dissemination or preparation and storage of literature of the same character, shall be punishable by - deprivation of freedom for a term up to two years." The Stalinization of the Western mind continues.
European interior ministers have agreed to make incitement to racism an EU-wide crime, but have stopped short of a blanket ban on Holocaust denial.
The agreement makes it an offence to condone or grossly trivialise crimes of genocide - but only if the effect is incitement to violence or hatred.
The deal follows six years of talks, and will disappoint Germany, which pushed hard for a Holocaust-denial law.
Berlin has also had to drop a proposal for an EU-wide ban on Nazi symbols.
The European Network Against Racism said most European countries already had laws against incitement to racism, and the "weak text" would leave many national legal codes unchanged.
