Moscow: The Editor-in-Chief of Danish Jyllands-Posten, Joernn Mikkelsen, described the newspaper's publication of cartoons on the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) as being a "genuine journalistic exercise".

Speaking at a special session (Lessons from the Mohammad cartoon clash) as part of the 59th World Newspaper Congress and the 13th World Editors Forum, Mikkelsen reiterated that the intention behind the decision of publishing the cartoons was to test "the scope of free speech around the world." Yet this is an exercise which he would not have carried in the first place, let alone attempted to repeat it again, given the consequent violence and bloodshed across many parts of the world.

Mikkelsen said the newspaper had been accused of ill-founded facts such as that it is owned by the Danish government and that it is aligned with the ultra right. Both accounts are wrong, he said.

"No we did not have cynical inhibitions of Muslims around the world. No we did not have cynical inhibitions about Muslims in Denmark. No Jyllands-Posten is not part of an anti-Islamic force," he added.

But the newspaper's decision was strongly criticised by Imtiaz Alam, General Secretary of the South Asian Free Media Association in Pakistan, who said that the publication of the cartoons have critically hindered the already low freedom of expression in the Muslim world.

"Never have I seen editors testing the limits of freedom of expression [like this]. The use of your freedom and expression can harm my freedom of expression in my part of the world. Now my freedom of expression is compromised", said Imtiaz who also sat in on the session as a panelist.

"I have been fighting for freedom of expression in Pakistan for a very long time. The issue [with the cartoons] was not about freedom of expression. But after angering so many people the freedom of expression [issue] was taken as a refuge", he said.

Hindering freedoms as a consequence of publishing the cartoons was also seen in Egypt said panelist Khaled Al Balshy from the Egyptian newspaper, Al Dustoor. "All forces that were seeking change were trying for a whole year to find an outlet to do so. Then came the cartoons which then made things worse", he said.

In addition, Al Balshy said the government had used the incident to advance its own agenda. "The Egyptian regime at the time was facing stiff and difficult elections in which the Muslim Brotherhood stood as serious contender. Hence the issue was used to its own advantage", he explained.

The panelist Hakeem Bello, Executive Editor of The National Interest in Nigeria, also questioned the decision of publishing the cartoons and the reactions it had generated. "To test the extent of censorship in a certain society, do you have to get to that extreme?" he questioned.

Bello said revenge killings in Nigeria had caused the loss of no less than 160 innocent lives, because something was published thousands of kilometres away. "In no other country was the destruction so widespread as in Nigeria" where in addition to the loss of human lives, millions of dollars were lost in property, he said.

But Le Monde's Editor, Eric Le Boucher, also one of the panelists, insisted that the principle of liberty should be defended as described by the UN Human Rights Declaration.

"You never put your flag in your pocket. Liberty and human rights are the flag of Europe at the time," he said.