Igniting a tinderbox of intolerance

http://www.theage.com.au/news/editorial/igniting-a-tinderbox-of-intolerance/2006/02/06/1139074163835.html

[The Age] February 7, 2006--Newspaper cartoonists are in the business of being provocative, as Age readers will know. Rarely, if ever, have they provoked such a response as have 12 cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that were drawn at the invitation of Danish broadsheet Jyllands-Posten and first published on September 30. The sacrilegious images were calculated to offend Muslims - the paper was drawing attention to self-censorship under threat of extremist reprisals - and the outrage has now spread worldwide in a dispute that touches on everything from freedom of speech and religious tolerance to stereotyping and extremism. The Age has not published these cartoons as a matter of editorial judgement, a position supported by this newspaper's cartoonists. The Danish cartoons were neither insightful nor effective, just stereotypical smears. At the level of content, there was little justification to run them. Even given their curiosity value, such material carries a responsibility to consider whether the point of publication outweighs any likely offence. Having the freedom to publish does not mean we must publish to prove it.