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fullscreen Denmark’s Minister of Justice Peter Hummelgaard. Archive image. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix/AP
Denmark’s Minister of Justice Peter Hummelgaard (S) urges the media to proceed with caution in conveying details of the case where a man stands accused of the murder of a 17-year-old and the abduction of a 13-year-old girl.
Hummelgaard is supported by a Danish children’s rights organization, the president of the Association of Journalists Tine Johansen, and the Meng family’s plaintiff’s counsel Mai-Brit Storm Thygesen, writes Danish Journalisten.
In an email to the Danish media, Storm Thygesen urges the media not to describe the details of the case, because the indictment will contain “appalling details” that will be “difficult and traumatizing for the relatives to get access to via the media”.
On Monday, the media gained access to the ten-page indictment against the 32-year-old man who is accused of raping and killing 17-year-old Emilie Meng in 2016 and of robbing and assaulting a 13-year-old girl in 2023, as well as of attempting rape a 15-year-old girl.
And the many brutal details in the indictment are now causing Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard to issue an unusual warning directly to the country’s media. To TV 2 News, the minister says:
– I sincerely hope that all Danish media take the warning from both myself and Børns Vilkår seriously.
He also says the case has prompted him to consider a change in the law. Today, the public has free access to court proceedings and access to documents such as judgments and indictments.
However, after a “very difficult balance”, the Minister of Justice has come to the conclusion that he does not believe that the rules should be changed.