Denmark, democracy and a free press
Ask some Danes on the streets of Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, what is important to them. Many will reply that it is important that we have a safe country, that all people get their basic food supply, have a decent place to live and have free access to hospital and education. Many will formulate that it is important to them as Danes that we have a well-functioning democracy without corruption.
If you talk to people more, they’ll probably argue that they appreciate a free press. Everyone should be able to speak and give their opinion on all kinds of issues in the community, including religion. In fact, in most cases religion is not a big deal for modern Danes and in Denmark people have the right to practice their own religion.
As a very small country, the Danes are aware that we are just a small corn of sand in the global sand sea. But because of the focus on democracy and how to improve equality globally, Denmark has been interested in development aid for many years. In the last years this has stopped a bit but it is still something fundamental among the Danes to try to make the world a little better.
As an example I can mention that I was assigned to be part of a Thai Ministry effort to ‘Strengthen Environmental Education in Thailand’ (The SEET Project). This 4-year work was initiated by the host country, Thailand, and funded in part by USD 0.80 from each of Denmark’s 5 million people through the tax system. Formally, the project was financed by the DANCED agency, then by DANIDA, and the project had very strong democratic aspects incorporated.
For the Danes it is difficult to separate the importance of democracy from caring for the environment in the long term in Denmark and throughout the world. In the late 1960s, the environmental movement in Denmark would never have had such an impact without the free press in Denmark. All Danish newspapers are independent of the government and most are also more or less independent of political parties. But of course 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 the establishment of companies. But with the critical attitude toward community issues, we love newspapers for keeping the public debate going. In the case of environmental issues, it aroused a strong environmental priority among some political parties and in the government as such of the time. The effects of that are still very much alive: Denmark is regarded as the “windmill hub” of the world, and we escape having nuclear power plans in our small country.
That would never have happened without democracy and freedom of the press in Denmark.