Andrew Stuttaford of National Review Online underlines the point of today’s column with these studies in legal ignorance:
“That’s right: they don’t particularly like the idea of the film, but they think that it should be made. That’s called freedom, or, as a number of EU governments prefer to call it, “provocation”.” – Andrew Stuttaford
“Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali rallies to Denmark’s defense, while faulting her own government: ‘I do not seek to offend religious sentiment, but I will not submit to tyranny. Demanding that people who do not accept Muhammad’s teachings should refrain from drawing him is not a request for respect but a demand for submission.’ In response, the Dutch prime minister has said that he does “not have much use” for Hirsi Ali’s views. Shame on him.” – Stuttaford again
“According to Dagens Nyheter, the Swedish security services (Säpo), in collusion with Foreign Minister Leila Freivalds, have forced the website SD-Kuriren offline for publishing the Jyllands-Posten cartoons (SD-Kuriren is the house organ of the hard-right Swedish Democrats).” – Stuttaford, quoting the Stockholm Spectator
“The EU’s foreign policy boss is setting out on a trip of the Middle East to discuss the cartoon saga. These comments, in an interview with Al Arabiya, suggest that free speech will take second place to a “respect” that “does not stop at countries’ borders and it includes all religions and specifically what concerns us here, our respect for the Islamic religion.” Meanwhile, a preacher in Mecca is rejecting apologies and demanding a trial. With “stiff penalties” to follow, of course.” – Once more, the irrepressible Mr. Stuttaford
The great irony here is that Andrew Stuttaford is British, and thus hails from a country which does not recognize American-style press freedom. As I demonstrated using Swiss law, most European countries ban public insults to officially-recognized religions – you can, for example, freely insult Scientologists in Germany since it is considered a cult, not a religion – and thus the Muslim call for trials and prosecutions of the offending media organizations is entirely reasonable in many, if not most of those countries.
It is a pity that these individuals so interested in protecting a non-existent press freedom in Europe are not equally exercised about the recent loss of genuine American press freedoms due to the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill and the new violence against women act.