Denmark: Newspaper editor refuses to write about gay marriage laws

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A Danish newspaper editor said he would refuse to include any news about the country’s recently-implemented equal marriage laws.

The laws allowing gay couples in Denmark an equal right to marry in state churches came into force last week.

But a newspaper editor in northern Jutland refused to include stories about the new law, which he disagrees with on principle, tv2nord.dk reports.

Preben Eskildsen is the editor and owner of the Jutland newspaper Vesthimmerlands Folkeblad, which has a circulation of 10,000.

When he was contacted by a local priest, Roar Pedersen, who suggested he include reports on the country’s new gay marriage laws, Mr Eskildsen refused.

The editor replied: “I can write whatever the hell I want to about gay marriage, but it is wrong and I will not waste space on it.”

Pedersen said it was a “problem for democracy” if the editor refused to acknowledge an issue he because he disagreed with it.

Eskildsen told the news outlet: “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.”