Was the press right to republish those cartoons?

Is it really brave deliberately to cause offence? Most of the UK press seem to agree with my view (or perhaps I agree with theirs?) that it isn’t. I got mildly lambasting by some simple souls after posting my opinion, perhaps in an offensively deliberately oblique way, on a comment over at Harry’s Place yesterday.

The Daily Mail says in its comment column today that: “freedom of speech also involves responsibilities … a key obligation of free speech is that you don't gratuitously insult those with whom you disagree.” and the Guardian’s leader writer declares that it “believes uncompromisingly in freedom of expression, but not in any duty to gratuitously offend”

The Indy’s leader is mostly only available if you pay* but it makes a similar point which you can read for free: “But while we defend Jyllands-Posten's right to publish, we also question its editorial judgement. …. There is no merit in causing gratuitous offence, as these cartoons undoubtedly do.”

Yesterday the Telegraph leader said: “The Daily Telegraph has chosen not to publish the cartoons. We prefer not to cause gratuitous offence to some of our readers, a policy we also apply, for example, to pictures of graphic nudity or violence”.

The Times leader today ruminates, inter alia, about another angle which I hadn’t considered: “the much misunderstood role of the free press. It is telling that the reaction of protesters and politicians alike in much of the Islamic world has been to hold governments responsible for editorial decisions taken in media outlets. The assumption seems to be that the idea of a free press is an elegant sham, that democracies, just like dictatorships, involve controlled news, so nothing sees the black of print without an element of official sanction. It is an outlook that, if it cannot be changed, will, unfortunately, result in yet more conflict.”


*With the Independent's print version today you also get a teach-yourself-Spanish CD which might make a handy bird scarer for your precious crops. You’ll have to buy the IoS if you want the book to go with it.