LONDON (Reuters) - The European Union may try to draw up a media code of conduct to avoid a repeat of the furor caused by the publication across Europe of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, an EU commissioner said on Thursday.
In an interview with Britain’s Daily Telegraph, EU Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini said the charter would encourage the media to show “prudence” when covering religion.
“The press will give the Muslim world the message: We are aware of the consequences of exercising the right of free expression,” he told the newspaper. “We can and we are ready to self-regulate that right.”
The cartoons, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper last September before being reprinted across Europe, sparked a wave of protests around the world.
Newspapers which have published them say they are exercising their right to freedom of speech, while critics say the cartoons are deliberately offensive. Depicting the Prophet Mohammad is prohibited by Islam.
Frattini, a former Italian foreign minister, said millions of Muslims in Europe felt “humiliated” by the cartoons.
His proposed voluntary code would urge the media to respect all religious sensibilities but would not offer privileged status to any one faith.
The code would be drawn up by the European Commission, the EU executive body, and European media outlets, he said. It would not have legal status.
I certainly hope not.
Eye-opening what a group can get in response to storming and burning embassies, killing while protesting, burning flags and effigies, and shouting “death to the West” eh? Looks like Mark Steyn was right.
(Hat tip: LGF)
Related Toldjah So posts:
- The anatomy of the cartoon jihad
- NYT publishes virgin Mary “art” - but not ‘offensive’ Mohammed cartoons
- Oh indeed - it’s definitely about hate!
- Iran paper to publish Holocaust ‘cartoons’
- Another US media double standard re: cartoons
- US media will print Abu Ghraib photos but not controversial cartoons
- Multicultural sensitivity and how it can have brutal consequences
- US sides with Muslims in cartoon controversy
- More European papers reprinting “offensive” Islamic cartoons
- Bomb threats made against Danish paper over Mohammed cartoons
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Lots of EU countries ban denying the holocaust. Which is why I think its interesting that Iran printed cartoons doing that.
Comment by andrew @ 2/9/2006 - 2:50 pm
This is unbelievable! Frattini should amend his statement to:
I hope the brave people of Britain, Poland and Denmark don’t submit to this.
Comment by blogagog @ 2/9/2006 - 3:10 pm
The word “Islam” means “submission.” This, my friends, is submission.
Comment by Sloan @ 2/9/2006 - 3:41 pm
And CAIR is SOOOOO upset that a Jewish/Brazilian Los Angeles radio talk show host made a little fun with a parody of a Helicopter traffic report of the Hajj.
How juvenile and self centered the Arab Street is.
Comment by PCD @ 2/9/2006 - 3:44 pm
Here we go down the slippery slope….
Soon there will be riots if someone mentions that the 9/11 hijackers were radical muslims…
We’ll have to apologize and never mention it again.
Comment by Baklava @ 2/9/2006 - 3:51 pm
The EU had better outlaw pork before a muslim finds out that some people eat pigs over there!
Comment by blogagog @ 2/9/2006 - 3:57 pm
So yelling “fire” in a crowded theater is acceptable? There is not now, nor has there ever been an absolute freedom of speech. With all freedoms come responsibility. Perhaps the demonstrations would have been smaller if the US wasn’t, on a daily basis, threatening Syria and Iran. You cannot have Peace(Christ) by making war(anti-Christ). Peace
Comment by steve @ 2/9/2006 - 4:06 pm
You know, I keep swearing off responding to steve because afterwards I always feel bad, as if I had kicked a puppy.
Well, I dunno, I have never kicked a puppy. Maybe I’d enjoy it. But this time, I am NOT going to to respond to steve’s pathetic attempts to simulate depth by hanging a “kick me, I’m stupid” sign on his back.
Comment by Steve Skubinna @ 2/9/2006 - 4:18 pm
Nobody yelled fire in a crowded theater (prompted everyone to get up and try to exit quickly thus causing harm).
There is a reason riots took 5 months long after the initial tolerance contest for Muslim artists cartoons took place. Because an imam made additional cartoons and presented them to the the muslim world as Danish cartoons. The only one who can be equated to yelling fire in a crowded theater is the Imam who basically slandered the tolerant cartoon contest creator.
You cannot have peace if you don’t defend yourself from people. Even more peace through clarity.
Comment by Baklava @ 2/9/2006 - 4:18 pm
I swore it off. And look what happened. I must be bored. I got too productive and finished all my tasks already today.
Now I have too much time on my hands. PLUS I just found out that where I work they are putting in a content filter Feb 17th and so I may not be able to get my ST fix so I have to get it now. Or maybe I should start weening myself off of ST so as it isn’t cold turkey.
Comment by Baklava @ 2/9/2006 - 4:21 pm
Isn’t that ironic though?
A tolerant peace loving Danish cartoonist holding a contest is now in fear of his life and his families life and is paying for protection because of people who have basically slandered him and have created additional drawings and attributed them to him.
Now irresponsible people go to blogs and act like we need to be tolerant and peaceful. HA! Tell that to the tolerant peaceful good hearted Danish person who is MYSTIFIED (I think that’s the term he used - mystified).
Some people’s children.
Comment by Baklava @ 2/9/2006 - 4:25 pm
I know what you mean Mr. Skubina! I keep trying to avoid responding to Steve’s delusional statements, but it’s like an addiction!
I’m going to pass this time though since you guys covered it so well. You can’t have freedom (freedom) without standing up for protecting your freedoms (freedom). Freedom
Comment by blogagog @ 2/9/2006 - 4:29 pm
You know this whole thing is supposed to be “voluntary.” Heh. Anyone familiar with unchecked political correctness knows what “voluntary” means: Do it anyway.
Comment by CT @ 2/9/2006 - 5:38 pm
Baklava,
I can’t even view this during work hours unless I call in sick (like today).
So much to discuss with steve’s latest statement.. there’s almost no point in doing it anymore. It’s like a broken record.
Basically do the opposite of what steve says and you’ll be right.
Comment by Ryan @ 2/9/2006 - 6:48 pm
Oh man. How do you deal?
I’ll have to setup RDP on my home computer so that I can login to that from work and get my ST fix….
TCP port 3389! And a few security vulnerabilities that you just path here and there when they are found….
Comment by Baklava @ 2/9/2006 - 7:42 pm
Sloan: You are soooo correct!
Euroweenies are about to submit to Islamoterror. What a surprise. *yawn*
Will the US?
Steve, ignore steve. he’s just a one trick pony.
Comment by benning @ 2/9/2006 - 8:23 pm
The key is to set up your computer at home as a proxy server, Ryan. Assuming you can link up with your home while you are at work, you can connect anywhere. It’s not too difficult to do with Apache web server, but I would not call it easy either.
I have the same problem at work, and Apache solved it. That it’s free is just a bonus
Don’t make it anonymous though, or you will get hammered with traffic!
Comment by blogagog @ 2/9/2006 - 11:05 pm
Welp. I chose the RDP route. I have a Novell 6.x server with Apache Web server running also but what also made my decision is that I have other software on my home computer that I want access to from anywhere…
I already enabled TCP 3389 through my firewall and port forwarded it to my laptop running Windows XP and it’s working. Of course the RDP is being run with 128 bit encryption and the laptop has a firewall on it so I’m not too worried.
Comment by Baklava @ 2/9/2006 - 11:31 pm
Just saw the Malkin site. At the Jyllands-Posten [newspaper], Flemming Rose, the culture editor [who did nothing wrong] who commissioned the Muhammad cartoons, has been put on indefinite leave
Malkins is so on top of the 3 extra cartoons drawn by Muslim Imam’s to stoke anger in the Islamic anger. She’s been taking CNN and Fox News to task. I saw Malkin on Fox News last night and HAD NO IDEA that she had the cartoons put on a cardboard and FOX NEWS CUT AWAY TO THE RIOTS when she tried to show them.
Crazy. The 12 cartoons published by the Danish newspaper were done as part of a contest for Islamic artists.
Check out these words from Malkin’s site where she quotes Paul Belien:
When the Danish press discovered the three false so-called Danish cartoons, the imams refused to say where they had got them. They claimed, however, that the false cartoons were genuinely Danish and had been added to “give an insight in how hateful the atmosphere in Denmark is towards Muslims.”
The Brussels Journal has always doubted whether the cartoons added by the imams were genuine. Whenever we mentioned them we explicitly wondered whether they were not “of the imam’s own making.” Certain Western mainstream media, however, such as the Australian network SBS and the British BBC authoritatively declared that the pigsnout was one of Jyllands-Posten’s cartoons.
Yesterday an American blogger discovered where the “pigsnout Muhammad” comes from. It has no relation to Muhammad whatsoever, it is not even a cartoon, but a fax image of a photo of a French clown performing at a pig festival.
Denmark is being punished at the instigation of radical imams because twelve cartoonists have depicted Muhammad. However, these imams created their own three Muhammad images. They have even presented a French clown as being Muhammad. Because the twelve JP cartoonists are not Muslims, the Muslim blasphemy laws do not apply to them. But these laws do apply to the imams. Consequently, these imams deserve death. They – and no-one else – depicted the prophet as a pig – the highest imaginable insult in Islam.
…Western papers and blogs that published the twelve cartoons were right to do so. If they had not published, no-one would have been able to ascertain that the pigsnout was not among them. If they had not published, the cheating, blasphemous imams would have got away with their lies. The public is served by information, never harmed by it. Let this be a lesson to the cowards of The Guardian, SBS, the BBC and the British and American mainstream media, who “out of respect” for Islam would have allowed blasphemous imams to get away with their gross insult of the prophet, with slander and libel, and with the violent acts which they instigated.
Comment by Baklava @ 2/9/2006 - 11:45 pm
Nods.
I thought about this on the way home from work today.
If ANY human form depiction, especially the Prophet Muhammad is prohibited, isn’t against the Islam religon and blasphemous to even display copies and recreations of it to other Muslims?
I understand they were “trying” to show the outrage of what was done, but in showing these pictures themselevs, are they not just as guilty as those who created and published them according to thier own religous doctrine?
And Baklava, that was an excellent point, since the “added” fake cartoons, especially the pig snout one from France Pig Contest was included by the Imams and was not a cartoon or even published by the paper they were threatening, they are guilty of lying to thier Muslim Brothers, Hearasy, and Blasphemy in trying to show the Prophet Muhammad as a pig.
But, how much will you see this in the news?
New name for the MSM is the Muslim Submissive Media
Comment by sanity @ 2/10/2006 - 12:18 am
Your solution is certainly better Bak, especially since it’s encrypted, and gives you access to your programs. My solution only resolves domain banning. I am just uncomfortable with remote desktop’s security, for no reason at all. I’ve never had a problem on the rare occasion that I’ve used it, I’ve never heard of anyone having security trouble with it, but turning it on seriously freaks me out!
Oh well
Interesting twist about the imam really being the only blaphemer here! Unfortunately, I doubt it will catch on in the muslim world.
Comment by blogagog @ 2/10/2006 - 12:41 am
We have a discussion of “The End of Free Speech?” at ChicagoBoyz.
Comment by David Foster @ 2/10/2006 - 11:00 am
Very interesting.
By Diana West
Diana seems to have a very interesting take on this. It is something to think about.
Comment by sanity @ 2/10/2006 - 3:23 pm