Enlightened Repression

The European Union plans to enshrine in law denial of the holocaust and "grossly trivializing crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes”, except in cases where the genocide denial is state sanctioned:

In an attempt to assuage Turkish fears, several EU diplomats said the provisions would not penalise the denial of mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman troops in the aftermath of the 1915 collapse of the Ottoman empire. Turkey strongly rejects claims that this episode amounted to genocide.

Yeah, Turkey and the mainstream media.

Special care has also been made to protect the right to belittle the horrors of the Holocaust if it results in a high grossing film:

...the wording was designed to avoid criminalising comical plays or films about the Holocaust such as the Italian comedian Roberto Benigni’s prize-winning Life is Beautiful .

It will also exclude Stalinist crimes, presumably because there are still Stalinists in a number of European parliaments.

So, basically this law empowers the European Union to dictate the facts of history and punish those who question the official truth. But that's okay because it's our truth.

(Link via Damian Penny)