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Originally Posted by Shin Pad
I'm all for freedom of the press, but, there has to be some common sense to it. Is it really worth printing something that has upset such a large group of people in the World? Just because you CAN do print something like this, doesn't mean you should. I know a lot of publications (the WS is a good example), would never have printed these, other than to make a point of the fact that freedom of the press wasn't called into question (and the fact that it has become such a hot issue).
It would be like printing graphic pictures of a horrific auto accident - it would be perfectly legal, but, most if not all publications would not print or depict such a scene. It would offend many people. So, my question is, why try and stir the pot in the Muslim world by doing this - especially with the deteriorating relations between the Middle East and the west?
Anyway, to me, this isn't an issue of freedom of the press - it's an issue of using good judgement.
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Actually, that is what has started this entire thing: A desire by a newspaper to test the limits of "self-censorship" and to see if newspapers were eroding their own right to freedom of the press.
Honestly, I suspect that this is merely the tip of the iceberg. I believe that Muslim leaders - moderate and radical - are privately overjoyed by these images. They can use them to point out how evil the western world is in an attempt at stalling the inevitable desire for the younger generations to have more personal liberties and more freedom of their own lives. These religious leaders see the decline of Christianity in the liberal world and fear that when their own people begin to outgrow their own restrictive religions. Christianity has responded by becomming much more tolerant, adapting to the people. At some point the Muslim faith will have to step out of the dark ages and do the same. Evidently, today is not that day.