AUDIO: Media academic brushes off Danish MP’s 'free-ride' defence claim

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AUCKLAND (Pacific Media Watch): A leading Danish journalism professor has brushed off rightwing MP Marie Krarup’s criticisms of the New Zealand military as not worthy of attention:

“I think it’s giving her statement too much importance to say that it was really a political foundation underneath what were careless and insensitive remarks made about a reception," Professor Hans Henrik Holm at the Danish School of Journalism told Pacific Media Watch.

"I think we imbue it with far too much importance because it’s not really a political statement that has any importance on Danish-New Zealand relations.”

Krarup attended a powhiri at Auckland's Devonport naval base last month together with the six-member Committee of Defence from the Danish Parliament.

The MP from the Danish People’s Party was heavily criticised in both Denmark and New Zealand after she characterised the Māori welcoming ceremony as "grotesque" and "less civilised".

In her blog entry, Krarup also tried to link multicultural developments in New Zealand with what she views as a military and cultural decline in the country.

Pacific Media Watch translated the entire blog entry, which you can read here.

Refuses apology
Krarup’s last comment on the case was given two days ago on her Facebook page where she stated:

"People have asked me to withdraw from the Committee on Defence. Some have asked me to apologise for what I have written. They can forget everything about that! I stand by what I wrote!"

In an interview by TVNZ’s Breakfast show on Monday, Krarup said she was sorry if New Zealanders had been offended by her comments, but did not retract her comments on Māori culture.

The vice-chairman of the Danish People's Party, Søren Espersen, on the other hand has issued a press release where he on behalf of the party apologises for her comments.

The Minister of Trade and Investment in Denmark, Pia Olsen Dyhr from the Socialist People’s Party, has also issued an apology, saying the comments may have damaged trade relations between Denmark and New Zealand.

Symptomatic
According to Danish PhD student Rune Hjarno Rasmussen, Krarup’s comments are symptomatic of an extremist trend in Denmark.

In a New Zealand Herald commentary he states:

“I wish I could say that Krarup was an exception in Denmark, but unfortunately she is more symptomatic than she is exceptional”.

Rasmussen also criticises the Danish media:

“[O]ne might imagine that Denmark surely must have a whole class of journalists who see it as their calling to oppose and criticise these openly fascist tendencies. Sadly that is not the case.

"Strange as it may sound, Danish journalists rarely criticise”.

Rasmussen dismisses Krarup’s claim that the meaning of her blog entry, which also was published in the newspaper Berlingske as a commentary, was lost in translation. According to Rasmussen the translation is accurate.

No understanding
Danish journalism professor Hans Henrik Holm believes Krarup underestimated the potential of new media.

According to him, Krarup frequently features in the Danish media and takes a "contrarian point of view".

In this instance, according to Holm, the politician did not expect her comments to travel to the other side of the world and haunt her, but that is exactly what happened.

Pacific Media Watch interviewed Danish professor Hans Henrik Holm about the reactions on Wednesday. Below is a transcript of the interview on the YouTube audio file.

PMW asked Holm what reactions there had been in Denmark after the story broke about Krarup’s derogatory comments:

The first set of reactions was the reporting of the incident and reactions in the press and the media trying to clarify what this was all about. It was met initially by a lot of disbelief on the left wing of the political spectrum.

The reactions was pretty much that this is what was to be expected from a populist right wing politician, from a party that has made a critical stance towards immigration one of its main planks in its platform. And from the more right wing of the political spectrum there were very few comments and a little bit of disbelief, or trying to say that this was all based on a misunderstanding.

The second set of reactions came today, and they came from her own party. And those reactions were to say that this did not represent the party, and that this was misunderstanding, and she was told that when you visit a foreign country you follow the rules of courtesy towards your hosts. So her own party in effects has told her off, has disavowed of her comments.

Daniel Drageset: Here in New Zealand people are quite surprised about what they see as very rude comments for a person being a guest in another country. How surprised were you when you first heard of this story?

HHH: First of all I think it’s an expression of the fact that people – even politicians – underestimate the global reach of social media.

They think that they can come with smart little comments on their Facebook page in home in Denmark. And a dinner conversation you have had where you were saying, "well, I visited this country and these strange things happened", and nobody would think anything of it.

But here of course it immediately reverberates back and is taken, as indeed it was, as an example of lack of cultural sensitivity.

DD: How can people in New Zealand with little or no knowledge of the Danish People’s Party understand the comments Krarup made?

HHH: I think they can see the comments as the expression of a person who does not have much understanding of what multiculturalism really means, or perhaps even a great acceptance of what multiculturalism means. Understanding that multiculturalism really is about respecting other people’s customs for that they are other people’s customs.

DD: How would you briefly describe the Danish People’s Party?

HHH: The Danish People’s Party is a populist right-wing party. Its chief platform has been critical towards immigration, particularly immigration from the Middle East into Denmark. It has sort of traditional nationalist overtones.

They are strong on defence, they’re strong on support for King and country, and they’re populist in the sense that they are strong supporter of the welfare state. They support an expanded welfare state, but for Danes.

And they’re very suspicious of globalisation, they’re very suspicious of the European Union, they’re very suspicious of internationalisation.

DD: How normal are the attitudes that Krarup voices in her blog entry in the rest of Denmark?

HHH: I think the attitudes expressed here are really the attitudes of a careless person who expresses lack of sensitivity, and careless and insensitive attitudes are probably to be found in any population around the country [he probably means the world].

The difference here is that it is a politician who comes on an official visit, because these types of attitudes can be found in any population, probably also in the New Zealand population.

DD: What do you think of the media coverage of this story?

HHH: Well, in the grand scheme of things this of course is a very, very minor little incident. It’s a remark made that showed lack of sensitivity towards multiculturalism, but it has no political consequences.

It has no immediate impact. It’s not going to impinge on Denmark-New Zealand relations. It’s not going to be any lasting effect on anything, but it is an interesting example of the fact that no politician – even how minor they are – can speak without being careful of expressing their comments in such a way that they come back to their hosts, even when they talk on social media far away from where they are.

DD: It might not seem like Marie Krarup fully understands the immediacy of social media and that her comments could be used against her. How do you see that?

HHH: I would imagine that this is not something she expected to happen. She’s quite often used as a media commentator, and she likes to have this sort of contrarian point of view on many issues, so she’s used to creating controversy with her statements.

But I think in fact since this was not a publicly expressed sentiment, public in the sense that she wrote it, that it was she intended for public consumption in reality. In that sense it shows poor judgement on her part.

DD: Are there other media angles that Danish and New Zealand news media could have used that were overlooked?

HHH: Well, I haven’t seen all of the Danish media, nor all of New Zealand media. But it is an example of how media on issues like this takes small events and blow them into big things. After all, even though I think it was very poor form of her to express these sentiments, I also think that this is not a case we will be talking about a couple of months from now.

DD: Krarup’s main point is that the multicultural developments here in New Zealand can in a way be tied to a cultural and military decline in the country as such. And you are of course very familiar with international politics and reporting. What is your point of view of this?

HHH: I think it’s giving her statement too much importance to say that it was really a political foundation underneath what were careless and insensitive remarks made about a reception. I think we imbue it with far too much importance, because it’s not really a political statement that has any importance on Danish-New Zealand relations.