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Maybe there's hope for Europe yet. "An experiment? (1)," from the Telegraph, with thanks to Filtrat:
In today's print edition I reported on plans by Franco Frattini, the EU Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security, to bring together European newspapers and media groups, and draw up a voluntary code of conduct, committing editors to "prudence" when reporting Islam and other religions.Mr Frattini thinks I misconstrued what he said. He has issued a stern press release, putting his side of the story....
I fear there is no weblink to Mr Frattini's press release, so here it is in full: "This is a press release from the European Commission Ceci est un communiqué de presse de la Commission Européenne
"Following the publication of an article in the 'Daily Telegraph' of today, I want to clarify any possible misunderstandings about my position in regard to the so-called "cartoons" issue.
"As Commissioner responsible for the respect for and promotion of fundamental rights I have from the very outset underlined 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.
"I do not have the legal powers nor did I ever have the political intention to limit this fundamental right in any manner whatsoever.
"Since September 2005 I am in close contact with various representatives of the media, including the European federation of journalists, on issues linked to freedom of speech. I have offered to facilitate a dialogue between the media representatives and between them and faith leaders if that would be found useful by both parties.
"In their statement of 7 February 2005 the EFJ stated that it 'has encouraged the European Commission to support a professional dialogue among media professional groups and that they welcome the fact that Commissioner Frattini is doing just that'.
"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?', a relevant question as formulated by many actors , including the International Federation of Journalists.
"It is a dialogue on such a question which I would be wiling to facilitate but I will not impose such a role on any party if such a need would not be felt. Finally, 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.
"There have never been, nor will there be any plans by the European Commission to have some sort of EU regulation, nor is there any legal basis for doing so."
Posted by Robert at February 9, 2006 3:41 PM
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How are we to reconcile freedom of expression and respect for each individual's deepest convictions?You're not. That's freedom of expression. In the immortal words of Sgt. Hulka from Stripes, "Lighten up, (Islam)." Posted by: Beagle
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at February 9, 2006 4:28 PM
One breathes a sigh of relief.
And then one suddenly realises: Why am I breathing a sigh of relief? Why should I be so relieved merely because one Franco Frattini tells us that no, the European Union will not insist that the entire structure of Western democratic societies, whose very basis, achieved slowly through the writings of dozens of thinkers, over several centuries, beginning with Spinoza, and then through the various social-contract theorists of political legitimacy, locating that legitimacy in the General Will, and then in merely the will, of the people. A
And here we all are, so glad and so grateful for what? That those who presume to speak in our name, who rule in the governments and transnational institututions of the Western world, will not yield to Muslim mobs and death threats and jettison that freedom of speech without which all other individual liberties guaranteed by, inter alia, the First Amendment to the American Constitution, and the Declaration of the Rights of Man, and the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man, become meaningless?
That we are so grateful, and relieved, shows how crazy the situation has become. And that situation has become that way at a time when there are less than 20 million Muslims in Europe, with a population of more than 300 million.
"If they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when the wood is dry?"
Posted by: Hugh at February 9, 2006 4:31 PM
He didn't retract his statement -
By agreeing to a charter "the press will give the Muslim world the message: we are aware of the consequences of exercising the right of free expression, we can and we are ready to self-regulate that right", he said.
From Patrick at Clarity & Resolve, a translation...
Wait a sec, here... just gotta get my Eurocratospeak translator going... Okay, here we are: "The press will give the Muslim world a message: we are thoroughly terrified of the consequences of freely embracing the values that our forefathers died for, we can and we are ready to surrender our rights and accept dhimmi status."
Posted by: John Sobieski at February 9, 2006 6:13 PM
Franco Frattini is the typical Euro-whore who'll do anything to play both sides, while kowtowing just a little bit more to the Mohammedans.
When I saw the French polit-pimps and prostitutes this morning on French TV I cringed: Not one of them came out criticizing the Muzzies, all talk about 'sensitivity' and 'restraint', they don't even realize how pathetic they are!
Europe is in a bad way, but so is the US with its inner workings being such a mess and its 'leadership' so very incompetent and foolish...
Posted by: sheik yer'mami at February 9, 2006 8:30 PM
EU, US, cultivating an illusion of strength and freedom while kneeling on a prayer rug of fear. It's really a demographic bleeding capitulation to Fiefdoms of Islam. Muslims of Islam obviously have some traditional incest problems over the last 5 or 6 thousand years of doing drugs and raping each other.
Moham was aware of his rage & drug problems and had a chat or two with his Allah and Allah sanctified and blessed him & The Muslim traditional right to hate, rape, rage, rob, chop of heads, et al, murder all designated kafir in his lovely name without question, i.e. The Quran, the absolute words of Allah, C/O Moham.
The 1220 year revised addition, i.e. Arab terrorist manifesto, The High Power of Hate ( Kafir Inspection verboten).
at February 10, 2006 3:11 AM
How are we to reconcile freedom of expression and respect for each individual's deepest convictions?
Like Charles Krauthammer pointed out on the FoxNews Roundtable the other night, if reconciling the freedom of expression with respect for religious beliefs was the issue, it would have been one thing. But in the context of how in the mid-east Muslims routinely display the most vile images about Jews, that is not what this is about. It's about Islamic supremacy.
This is something that everyone in the West, (nay, everyone outside the Islamic world) must strongly oppose.
Posted by: Infidel Pride at February 10, 2006 3:46 AM
The UK based Independent on Sunday is conduction a poll[1]:
"Were British newspapers right not to publish the cartoons that portrayed the Prophet Mohamed? Tell us what you think."
Deliciously, they also carry another article in their weekday paper today[2], where the reasons for the press silence in the UK were explained in that simple, refreshing way that so chills the heart.
My contribution to the Ios Poll (which no doubt will not be printed, but one still tries...) is as follows:
In your article about " How a meeting of leaders in Mecca set off the cartoon wars around the world"
you reported:
"Ben Ramm, 23, the editor, later withdrew the cartoons from the website after being warned by police that he could be at risk. Mr Ramm said: "In France, journalists and editors were offered protection. I was specifically told by Scotland Yard that there were finite resources."
Clearly, your question is thus beside the point -- Britain's newspapers have been held to ransom by fear of fundamentalist murderers -- and it is interesting that the British police delivered the 'death threat' in form of telling the editor that he would not be protected against such a threat.
Publish and be damned is one thing, publish and be killed quite another.
Which proves the original point the Jylland Post editor made in a rather comprehensive manner.
(sent in anonymously, in order to preserve finite police resources...)
[1]http://comment.independent.co.uk/article318961.ece
[2]http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article344482.ece
at February 10, 2006 6:00 AM
Opps, I got sidetracked and made a silly mistake, quoting the wrong article.
The original article with the Death threats by proxy is here:
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article344500.ece
under the heading: Militant Muslim protesters face arrest
Posted by: Imli at February 10, 2006 6:22 AM
Unfortunately the way EU works is secretive. There's been a lot of brawl about openness. Usually it is the UK and Scandinavia against France. According to French tradition, everything is secret unless declared public. In the UK and Scandinavia it is the other way around; everything is public unless declared secret.
In practice, the EU is semi-secretive. You have, say, new regulations coming and you want to know what is the state of the preparation. The French have been forced to give in some, and now EU actually does give the documents if you ask - so to speak. But it does so in a tin-ear and reluctant manner, one has to write, e-mail, and yell several times, so the French culture is still there.
In worst case new regulations take effect before the required (and yelled for) documents arrive your mail. No, I don't have any first-hand experience, this is what I've been told by farming folks. In a sense, you are always a step behind the EU machinery and it's raining laws. The day new dirctives are issued, you are just standing there with one year old status report. This is not always the case, and by far not the rule, but a lot depends on where the staff handling the issues are coming from. As a rule, French and south european officials have hard time to understand that info requests by EU cizicens are not a joke.
What Frattini is doing here is just lip service. He sez one thing for the public, but I bet there's a censurship directive under preparation.
Posted by: Finn at February 10, 2006 6:48 AM
Finn,
as I pointed out, the cencorship is not neccessary, you simply threaten people with withdrawing the protection of the State from murder or other crimes, and people will cower and self-censor.
Seems to have been very effective in the UK...
Posted by: Imli at February 10, 2006 7:11 AM
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