Free speech
There has been a lot of criticism of the Danish newspaper that published cartoons depicting Mohammed as a terrorist sporting a turban-bomb and it is probably offensive to most Muslims. However, it should be protected under the freedom of the press (which exists in much of Europe as well as in America). The State Department spokesman made the following comments:
It is true that the cartoons are offensive but what are they referring to as "press responsibility"? First, I don't think that the cartoons pose enough of a threat of inciting violence (most of the violence has been in response and opposition to them). But the main message of the State Department is urging subtle press censorship, that of self-censorship. This is no better than explicit government censorship. The State Department's statement is remarkably close to a statement by Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister of Turkey, described in the Financial Times today (p.3) as:
This is a huge threat to any country with freedom of the press because it provides easy cover for restricting the freedom of the press under the guise of limiting disrespect to religion. Every religion can be satirized in the press as long as it doesn't advocate or incite violence. Any move away from this principle is damaging to press freedom and democracy.
"These cartoons are indeed offensive to the belief of Muslims," State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper said in answer to a question. "We all fully recognize and respect freedom of the press and expression but it must be coupled with press responsibility. Inciting religious or ethnic hatreds in this manner is not acceptable."
It is true that the cartoons are offensive but what are they referring to as "press responsibility"? First, I don't think that the cartoons pose enough of a threat of inciting violence (most of the violence has been in response and opposition to them). But the main message of the State Department is urging subtle press censorship, that of self-censorship. This is no better than explicit government censorship. The State Department's statement is remarkably close to a statement by Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister of Turkey, described in the Financial Times today (p.3) as:
Tayyip Erdogan, prime minister of Turkey, a European Union candidate country, deemed the cartoons an "attack of our spiritual values", and called for a limit to press freedom.
This is a huge threat to any country with freedom of the press because it provides easy cover for restricting the freedom of the press under the guise of limiting disrespect to religion. Every religion can be satirized in the press as long as it doesn't advocate or incite violence. Any move away from this principle is damaging to press freedom and democracy.
posted by Biafra27 at 2:21 PM
1 Comments:
You probably don't know that every muslim is taught to strive what you call freedom of speech and defense that as part of human right (yes there is human right in Islam, indeed long time before western human right we recognize that all humans are equal) but before we practice and exploit this FREEDOM we should think about the impact of what we are doing, this is the responsibility, especially the press who have their weapons to influence people, if they don't act responsibly that you see what is happening now around the world.
And it is not about pushing non-muslim to obey what we believe, it is about respecting others. What if someone draws a cartoon of your mother that you can not tolerate (i don't want to make detail example here so that i don't have to downgrade my self to the level of those who did the cartoons) ?? is that freedom of speech / draw or is that an act without responsibility?
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