Paper does its job

A major American newspaper, the Philadelphia Inquirer, has finally shown its readers one of the Mohammed cartoons:

The Philadelphia Inquirer, one of the few U.S. newspapers to publish a caricature of the Prophet Mohammad from a series that sparked a wave of protests by Muslims, defended the action on Sunday by saying it was just doing its job.

"This is the kind of work that newspapers are in business to do," said Amanda Bennett, the newspaper's editor.

The Inquirer on Saturday published the most controversial image, which depicted the Prophet with a turban resembling a lit bomb, and it posted on its Web site an Internet link to the rest of the cartoons.
[...]
The Inquirer included a note with its publication of the image which read, in part, "The Inquirer intends no disrespect to the religious beliefs of any of its readers. But when a use of religious imagery that many find offensive becomes a major news story, we believe it is important for readers to be able to judge the content of the image for themselves."

The note compared the image with the earlier publication of a 1987 photograph by Andres Serrano of a crucifix in urine, a work which angered many Christians.

Good for them. But I presume the United States, so beloved by radical Islamists up until now, will be the next target of boycotts and angry demonstrations. Meanwhile, as far as I know, Canadian newspapers are sticking to the "keep your head down and no one gets hurt" strategy.

Posted by damian at February 6, 2006 07:28 AM | TrackBack