EJP | News | Cartoons: EU to push for voluntary media code

	Sunday, September 07, 2008 7 Elul, 5768

News

France

Germany

Western Europe

Eastern Europe

EU-Israel affairs

Year 2006 in Review

US 2008 ELECTION

Iran - Holocaust

Voices

Culture

In Depth

Mideast Crisis

World Cup

On Anglo Jewry

Week at a glance

France Election

EU and Annapolis Summit

News from outside of Europe

Holocaust Remembrance Day

July 2008 at a glance

The Calendar

Links

Cartoons: EU to push for voluntary media code

Updated: 09/Feb/2006 18:16

Page tools

	Email to friend
	Print this page
	Bookmark this page
	Add your view

European Commission vice-president Franco Frattini said Thursday media in Europe should sign up to a voluntary « code of conduct » on reporting on Islam and other faiths in order to avoid future Danish cartoon-type issues.

Earlier, in an interview with the UK Daily Telegraph, Frattini argued that the cartoons first published in the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten "humiliated" millions of Muslims.

He said journalists and media chiefs “should be aware of their responsibility” when exercising their right of freedom of expression, and that they should voluntarily agree to self-regulation in cases where sensitive religious issues are involved.

While underlining that the freedom of press, of expression and speech, including the right to critique, constitutes one of they key pillars upon which the EU is founded and that he has no legal powers and no political intention to limit this right, Frattini called for a dialogue between media representatives and between them and faith leaders.”

“Such a dialogue would aim at discussing a number of pertinent questions which we are confronted with nowadays. One of them being "How are we to reconcile freedom of expression and respect for each individual’s deepest convictions?,” Frattini, who is responsible for the respect for and promotion of fundamental rights, said in a press statement.

”I have never suggested imposing a code of conduct on the press, it is up to the media themselves to self-regulate or not, and it is up to the media to formulate such a voluntary code of conduct if it is found necessary, appropriate and useful by them,” the Italian commissioner stressed.
The Muhammad cartoons have been so far published in 20 countries.

Danish paper will not print Holocaust cartoons

Meanwhile, the Danish newspaper at the origin of the row has said it would not after all print cartoons of the Holocaust collected by Iran’s largest-selling newspaper.

	"Muhammad overflown by fundamentalists"
	Muslim leader deplores violent protests over cartoons
	Danish chief rabbi slams cartoon publication
	Muslim European group posts anti-Semitic cartoons
	Jewish dignitaries condemn Muhammad cartoon
	Palestinian gunmen storm EU offices

The statement came after the Jyllands-Posten’s culture editor said earlier in the day the paper was considering such a step after an announcement by Iran’s Hamsharhri newspaper that it was holding a competition for cartoons of the Holocaust in response to the publishing in European papers of caricatures
of the Prophet.

"Jyllands-Posten does not want to publish Holocaust drawings of an Iranian newspaper under any circumstances," said chief editor Carsten Juste on the paper’s website.

The paper first published the cartoons, deemed offensive by Muslims, in September.

Danish television network TV2 said the decision was made "so as not to trigger an unnecessary debate" in the light of violent reactions to the caricatures in a number of Muslim countries.

The Iranian paper said its intention was to turn the tables on the
assertion that newspapers can print offensive material in the name of freedom of expression.

Jyllands-Posten’s culture editor Flemming Rose said his paper last weekend ran a full page of cartoons from the Arab press "documenting their representation of the Holocaust and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict" and that fellow Danish paper Berlingske Tidende had done the same.

"That does not imply our endorsement of these cartoons, just a news interest, and it will be the same with the Iranian cartoons," he said.

French statiric weekly to print Iranian cartoons

We have decided to publish the cartoons on the Holocaust in the name of the fight against revisionism, which is fundamental today

Philippe Val, editorial director of Charlie Hebdo

In Paris, a French newspaper which Wednesday reprinted the
contentious caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed said it would also print cartoons on the Holocaust from a competition being organised by an Iranian daily.

Asked if Charlie Hebdo, a satirical French weekly, intended to reproduce the Iranian cartoons, editorial director Philippe Val replied: "Yes."

But he said the decision stemmed not from a desire to defend the right to freedom of expression, as with the Mohammed cartoons, but rather to counter claims in Iran and elsewhere that the Nazi genocide against the Jews never occurred.

"We have decided to publish the cartoons on the Holocaust in the name of the fight against revisionism, which is fundamental today," he said at a Paris media conference.

Muslims around the world have vented their rage over the Mohammed
caricatures, which violate their traditional ban on depicting the Islamic prophet.

Arab newspapers have accused their Western counterparts of hypocrisy, saying they would not have reproduced images lampooning Jews or Judaism but felt free to offend Muslims.

Western newspapers for their part have noted that some Arab dailies have in the past shown caricatural Jewish cartoons.