A Danish newspaper editor has been slammed after saying he will not publish any articles about the country’s new gay marriage law because he thinks it is “wrong”. Preben Eskildsen, who owns and edits the Vesthimmerlands Folkeblad newspaper in Jutland, made the comments after receiving an email from Aalborg diocese vicar Christian Roar Pedersen, who urged him to report on the matter.
“I can write whatever the hell I want to about gay marriage, but it is wrong and I will not waste space on it,” wrote Eskildsen in reply.
Pedersen was so shaken by the response that he decided to share it with tv2nord.dk. “It is a big problem if members of the press decide not to write about certain topics,” he told the broadcaster. “It is a problem for democracy that he will not write about what he disagrees with.”
According to Pedersen, Eskildsen also said that Indian-born church minister Manu Sareen should “go back where he came from”. “I felt his comment bordered on being racist, and I didn’t like it, so I decided to come forward,” said Pedersen.
In response to allegations of homophobia and racism, Eskildsen told tv2nord.dk, “I am very much against gay marriage in the Church of Denmark and I think that the church minister is interfering in something he should not meddle in.”