Mixed rules for freedom of speech in Europe

The violence over cartoons satirising the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH ) has highlighted often inconsistent rules in Europe governing free speech, tolerance, and the boundaries of public expression. Muslims in particular charge that hate-speech laws are implemented unfairly. Many countries, they say, do not abide anti-Semitic outbursts, but will tolerate cartoons that to many Muslims are deeply offensive.

"Most of Europe would not dare mock the Holocaust, and rightly so," says Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain. "Newspaper editors exercise good judgment every day when it comes to printing material so as not to cause offence, so why not on this occasion?"

In a bid to redress grievances, the French Council of Muslims has said it is considering taking France Soir, which reprinted the cartoons, to court for provocation. Last year, the Catholic church won a court injunction to ban a fashion ad based on the Last Supper. The judge said the ad was "a gratuitous ... act of intrusion on people's innermost beliefs".

"This is what Muslims want to be treated the same as other faiths," says Olivier Roy, an eminent scholar of Islamic affairs at the National Centre of Scientific Research in Paris.

Roger Koeppel, editor in chief at German newspaper Die Welt, which published the cartoons last week, says that European societies have a right to make their own choices. "Every society has the right to have taboos, the things they don't talk about," he says. Koeppel says the cartoons were not published to annoy but to question a growing tendency for press self-censorship in delicate matters.

At times, he says, it may appear there is a double standard. "Evenhandedness cannot be a goal," he says. "It has to be clear that the majority culture rules and the minority culture has to accept the rules. If the rules are not acceptable, no one is forced to live there."

The general response from European politicians has been to frown on those who reproduced images first aired last autumn in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten newspaper, while insisting that editors were within their legal rights to do so. Governments have refrained from apologising to the Islamic community because they say publication is a matter for editors, not politicians. Muslim opinion, however, has not been appeased by this response. "Muslims are complaining that they are not protected by the law as the other faiths are supposed to be," says Roy.

Approach

When it comes to hate crime and defamation laws, there is no homogenous approach in Europe. Britain, for example, has long had a more tolerant approach to free speech than countries like Germany, France, and Austria, where Holocaust denial is a crime. "It's a mixed bag, a patchwork of practices and experiences in Europe," says Agnes Callamard, director of Article 19, a global freedom-of- expression campaign group. "It's very difficult to pretend there is a common position on hate speech."

But Europe is generally warier of free speech than is the US, with its First Amendment. Laws against inciting hatred and violence have sprung up in countries such as France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark, resulting in criminal cases, convictions, and, in the case of foreigners, expulsions.

Even Britain has sought to push through a law recently to outlaw inciting religious hatred, to give religious groups like Muslims and Christians the same rights as racial groups. But the legislation was watered down over concerns about the implications for free speech.

Still, several recent prosecutions would appear to indicate a diminishing tolerance for invective. In perhaps the most high-profile case of its kind, a Muslim cleric, Abu Hamza Al Masri, was found guilty on Tuesday of fomenting racial hatred and inciting followers to kill non-Muslims. He reserved particular vitriol for Jews.

Jurisdictions

Other European cases hint at the preoccupations of individual jurisdictions. In France, where anti-Semitism remains taboo, a comedian named Dieudonne has been effectively sidelined for his anti-Jewish rants. Newspapers must even be careful not to equate the actions of Jews everywhere with the state of Israel following a recent case that punished the daily Le Monde.

Roy says a form of self-censorship is in practice in France. "No mainstream newspaper would ever publish an interview with Dieudonne," he says. "He has been sidelined because he is supposed to be anti-Semitic."

French Muslims have questioned whether the outcome would have been the same if Dieudonne had aimed his humour at Muslims.

In Austria, a case of Holocaust denial charges is being prepared against British historian David Irving, based on two speeches he made in the country in 1989. He could face 10 years in jail if convicted. In Germany, antihate legislation that took effect last year has been used to rein in Muslim preachers who call for attacks or propagate hate.

In Turkey, the preoccupation is more nationalistic, as the recently dropped case against novelist Orhan Pamuk for "insulting Turkish identity" in remarks to a Swiss newspaper about the killings of Armenians in the early 20th century shows.