THE MOHAMMED CARTOONS CRISIS IN THE BRITISH AND GREEK PRESS

Field: Social Sciences (Social Sciences)

Abstract The recent controversy (2006) over the depiction of Prophet Mohammed in cartoons published originally in the Danish press and later re-published in several European dailies offers a suitable opportunity to study the emergence of a European public sphere. Although the controversy started in Denmark, it soon acquired a transnational character. Editors and journalists throughout the EU mobilised, upholding or criticising their publication. The crisis was not only international in nature but also specifically European in that it called into question important political principles such as freedom of expression and respect for other religions, as well as the limits of implementing these principles in practice. This study offers a critical overview of the coverage of the Cartoons Crisis in the British and Greek press. More specifically, we check how the event has been framed in the British and Greek media discourse, paying particular attention to whether the overall crisis was linked to notions of Europe and European values or rather to national actors and values. We seek thus to assess whether themes and discursive topoi taken up by the press in the two countries analysed converge or diverge and whether they can be said to belong to a common European discursive space. Keywords: cartoonsBritainEuropean mediaEuropean public sphere, Greecevalues Acknowledgements This article is part of a larger study on national media debates on Europe at times of crisis that was financed by the European Commission, RTD Directorate, Sixth Framework Programme for the period 2004–7 (research project EMEDIATE, European Public Sphere and International Crises in the Media, Contract No. CIT2-CT-2003-506027). The author would like to thank Maria Kontochristou for her assistance in collecting the newspaper material and preparing the tables and figures presented in this paper. Special thanks go to Bo Stråth, Ruth Wodak, Jessika ter Wal, Michal Krzyzanowski, James Kaye, Hagen Schulz Forberg, Andras Kovacs and Aniko Horvath for commenting on earlier versions of the paper discussed during project meetings. Also the comments of Henrik Örnebring have been invaluable in converting the original paper into a journal article. Naturally all errors or omissions are the author's sole responsibility. Notes 1. The issue arose after Danish writer Kare Bluitgen complained he was unable to find an illustrator for his children's book about the Prophet because he said no one dared to break an Islamic tenet banning the portrayal of his image. Jyllands-Posten asked cartoonists to ‘draw the Prophet as they saw him’, as an assertion of free speech and to reject pressure by Muslim groups to respect their sensitivities. 2. More widely, Islamic tradition has discouraged the figurative depiction of living creatures, especially human beings. Islamic art has therefore tended to be abstract or decorative. 3. The threats were widely reported in Denmark and prompted anti-Muslim comments. In the meantime 5000 people, including diplomats from Muslim countries, demonstrated in Copenhagen and complained to the Danish Prime Minister Andres Fogh Rasmussen. He initially refused to react, arguing that it was inappropriate for the Government to get involved in an issue of press freedom. However, in order to end the dispute, Danish diplomats produced an “explanation” for the head of the Arab League. On 30 January, the Danish Prime Minister conceded the row had moved on from a theoretical debate about the rights of the press and expressed his regrets at the offence caused to millions of Muslims, without however denying the freedom of the press and so did the newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Ironically, it appears that the move aimed at ending the dispute propelled it on an entirely different level. A number of European newspapers believed that in this way the right to freedom of expression and criticism is bounded, and reacted by republishing the images. That decision enraged millions of Muslims around the world (BBC News, 2 February 2006; The Guardian, 7 February 2006). 4. On average, 48 per cent of respondents in the EU25 are against Turkey's membership of the EU even if the country fulfilled all the criteria. The highest percentages against Turkey's accession are registered in Austria 81 per cent, Germany and Luxembourg 69 per cent, Cyprus 68 per cent and Greece 67 per cent. Source: Eurobarometer, No. 255, Issue 65.2, July 2006, http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_255_en.pdf, accessed 18 October 2006. 5. The circulation numbers for the newspapers were given by the Athens Daily Newspaper Publishers Association. The figures refer to annual circulation in 2005. The figures give the average daily circulation of the newspapers all over the country. These numbers refer to the sold papers. 6. A tabloid newspaper in the British sense of the term is hard to find among mainstream dailies. The only one that qualifies is Expresso, indeed a newspaper that mainly publishes “pink” scandals and sports news stories rather than political reports. 7. Figures for both British newspaper circulations were taken from the Audit Bureau of Circulations Ltd. These figures do not take into account the varying numbers of free copies of each paper given away at hotels, railway stations, and in airplanes. 8. For the British newspapers’ archives, see http://www.guardian.co.uk and http://www.telegraph.co.uk. 9. In Kathimerini there were five front-page stories referring to the cartoon events while in Eleftherotypia there were four. All the news reports were presented in the foreign news section, covering a considerable amount of space, i.e. from two to four pages.