Commonwealth and Foreign
DENMARK AND ITS PAPERS
By MONICA REDLICH
NEWSPAPERS in Denmark are so different from those in England that it takes a considerable time to get used to them (quite apart from learning how to read their contents). I think that from the English point of view the most vivid impression of what they are like can be given by saying what they are not like. There is no Times in Denmark : nothing of such unquestioned dignity, authority, and influence. On the other hand, there is no equivalent of, shall we say, the Daily Express, the Daily Mail, Daily Sketch, or Daily Mirror. There is no Observer or Sunday Times, nor is there any Sunday Dispatch or News of the World. There are no heights, so to speak, but there are no depths either.
Like everything else in Denmark, the Press, taken as a whole, is much more on one level than people from England would expect. It is one of the many signs of the success of Danish education that the level is a very high one. To take a small but not insignificant example, our daily maid always takes our morning newspaper home after we have read it; and it is a paper of (say) Daily Telegraph level, such as I should never dream of offering to any daily maid in England. I should never have offered it to Greta either, had I not found her one morning extracting it carefully from the other con- tents of the waste-paper basket.
There are three important daily morning papers which circulate over the whole country—Politiken, Berlingske Tidende ("Berlingske " is nothing to do with Berlin : Berling was the name of the founder), and Nationaltidende. All are responsible and very much alive, with their own correspon- dents in the most important places abroad and with up-to-the- minute accounts of every outstanding event. Foreign news, of course, fills an immense amount of space; speeches in the House of Commons, for example, are front-page news and are often reported in full. Precariously placed between powerful neighbours, Denmark has evolved its own ingenious methods of reporting their affairs with the minimum of offence to their feelings. Practically nothing is said other than what they say themselves. Only by a subtle choice of headlines and an apt use of heavy type are admiration, disgust, or dis- belief allowed expression; and even a newcomer can see how adroitly and independently the whole thing is done.
The Danish papers all belong to one or another of the four political parties, though this does not in the least appear to limit their capacity for seeing all sides of a question. Politiken is Radical, owned mainly by Radical politicians. Berlingske Tidende is Conservative, a family company still owned by descendants of the Berlingske family. Nationaltidende is also Conservative, and is owned by the Conservative Party. The fourth of the big morning papers in Copenhagen, Social- Demokraten, is controlled by the Socialist Party. All the parties are thus represented except the Liberal Party, the newspapers of which, however, taken as a whole, have perhaps the greatest circulation of any of the parties in the provinces. Politiken has a circulation of some 15o,000. Berlingske Tidende and Nationaltidende keep theirs dark, but it is very considerable; and that of Social-Demokraten is given as around 58,000. They cost 12 ore each—about a penny. On Sundays all four of them, for a total cost of zo ore each give not only the ordinary paper but also a supplement which is almost a magazine, full of stories, articles, coloured cartoons, and so on with outstand- ingly good colour reproductions of modern Danish paint- ings on the front cover. There is enough entertainment in these Sunday supplements to last many families the whole week.
A notable and characteristic development of the Danish Press is its provincial dailies. To anyone from England their number and quality is nothing short of astonishing. Every town in the country has, not one, but generally speaking four of them: four full grown daily papers, with all the world's news as well as that of the neighbourhood, and with a standard of editing which could challenge comparison with any. They are all party papers, but they are not owned by headquarters; most of them are owned by the local inhabitants, a few shares Copenhagen. here and a few shares there, a single share perhaps by one farmer and a single one again by his neighbour. Denmark as a whole, a country of 3} million inhabitants, has nearly three hundred daily newspapers.
The average total of four per town is sometimes reached in a rather curious way. In Ringsted, for instance, a town of 8,000 inhabitants, there are the full four, but two of them are dailies of other towns with a Ringsted title put on. To make up for this, the two papers actually made and printed in Ringsted are exported to several other towns, where they duly appear with appropriate local titles. Except for the very biggest of the provincial dailies, the appearance of these local papers is not impressive; one might suppose that they bought up a sackful of mixed out-of-date types when they were founded, and have gone on happily using them ever since. But the editing is impressive, and occupies some of the best men in the country. Many groups of papers support their own correspondent in London and any other necessary centres abroad ; and the Danish farmer who reads nothing but the local daily of which he owns one or two shares may be certain of getting a balanced and comprehensive idea of what is going on in his country and the world at large.
Returning now more particularly to Copenhagen, there is one aspect of Danish journalism which is bound to interest any English reader: a certain sceptical, ironic, often witty approach to topics of every sort, such as practically no paper in England would dare to risk except a serious weekly that cost at least sixpence. The ordinary man and his beliefs, royalty, famous sportsmen—nobody is exempt from this kind of treatment. Even a favourite actress may be pleasantly but quite acidly mocked. It is the tone of a people which does not lightly make heroes, but there is no rancour behind it, and to anyone who knows the lush ecstasies of some of the English newspapers it is extremely refreshing. The only people to whom the journalists are unfailingly polite, as far as I can see, are distinguished foreign visitors, particularly from England ; and no doubt if they were here a little longer they, too, would get their share of plain speaking.
As a nation, I think the Danes are, in a wholly reasonable and justified way, well pleased with themselves. " Self- satisfied " would be quite the wrong word. They do not for a moment rest content with what they have achieved, but are always on the look-out for some way of improving their standards. Almost every day one reads in the papers of some new scheme for better food for schoolchildren, a better ferry service here, a better museum there, better training for the Danish housewife : they are even willing to talk of rationalising their fantastic system of counting, as in the past they have rationalised their coinage and their weights and measures.
National pride they have in a strong degree, and have had for many hundreds of years—longer, certainly, than the British have, and for the good reason, as somebody said to me the other day, that " England has never been so constantly threatened." " Denmark, Denmark," say all the songs which they sing whenever_ they get the slightest opportunity : " Denmark where I was born," " Denmark where the men are brave and the women beautiful," " Denmark where the beech woods run down to the sea." Just what this pride in being Danish means to them, of course, no outsider can judge, but of one thing I am perfectly sure : it is pride, not prejudice.
As far as the individual goes, the limits of pride are very clearly defined. He may be a clever chap, but he must on no account appear to know it. To be " self-glad " is one of the intolerable offences in this very tolerant country, and I think that this special Press tone which I have mentioned comes from the all-pervading desire to take the individual down a peg or two, for his own good, and at the same time to push the general national standard a peg or two up. And having written that sentence I sit and look at it in astonish- ment, wondering when the daily paper will exist in England of which anything remotely the same could be said.
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