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The Right to Offend and the Right Not to Be Offended Interview with EU Commission Vice President Frattini

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The Right to Offend and the Right Not to Be Offended Interview with EU Commission Vice President Frattini ISSUE 18 June 2006 The Right to offend and the right not to be offended Interview with EU Commission Vice President Frattini A free society needs free speech - Ursula Owen Freedom of speech and hate speech - Amina Baghajati How the cartoons row is a challenge to free expression - Aidan White ISSUE 18 June 2006 2 Contents Welcome to Equal Voices 3 Editorial The team of the EUMC is pleased to welcome all readers to issue 18 of 4 Interview with Commission the magazine Equal Voices. Equal Voices content consists of in-depth Vice President Frattini. articles and features with analysis, new research, surveys, expert in- put, concepts for successful integration and comments. The opinions expressed 7 Freedom of speech and of- in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of the EUMC. fence: why blasphemy laws are not the appropriate res- To develop the magazine further we would very much welcome your comments, ponse, by Agnes Callamard. your suggestions or proposals for issues to be covered in the magazine. You can contact us on e-mail: [email protected] 13 Journalism and Combating Intolerance: How the Carto- All major articles of the Equal Voices will be available in English, French and ons Row is a Challenge to Free Expression and Quality German on the EUMC-website: http://eumc.europa.eu Media, by Aidan White. The EUMC team 17 A free society needs free speech, by Ursula Owen. Bienvenue dans notre magazine Equal Voices 19 Dangerous diversions: balan- L’équipe de l’EUMC est heureuse d’accueillir tous les lecteurs d’E- cing rights requires an even qual Voices dans les pages du dix-huitième numéro de ce magazine. scale, by ENAR. Equal Voices contient des articles et des éléments de fond ainsi que des analyses, des nouvelles recherches, des enquêtes, des contribu- 22 Punishing Religious Defama- tions de spécialistes et des idées pour une intégration réussie et des commen- tion and Holocaust Denial: Is taires. Les opinions exprimées dans cette publication ne représentent pas néces- There a Double Standard? sairement celles de l’EUMC. by Abraham Cooper and Ha- rold Brackman. Pour nous permettre d’améliorer ce magazine, nous serions heureux de recevoir vos commentaires, vos suggestions ou propositions concernant les sujets que 26 Freedom of speech and hate vous souhaiteriez y voir traiter. speech: Should there be li- Vous pouvez nous contacter par courrier électronique, à l’adresse: mits to freedom of speech or [email protected] not? by Amina Baghajati. Les principaux articles d’Equal Voices sont publiés en anglais, français et alle- 29 Distorted. Inflammatory. The mand sur le site web de l’Observatoire: http://eumc.europa.eu image of African people in the media, by Dieter Schindlauer. L’équipe de l’EUMC Coverpage photo: Willkommen bei Equal Voices European Community, 2006 Das EUMC-Team begrüßt alle Leser und Leserinnen zu dieser ach- zehnten Ausgabe des Magazins Equal Voices. Der Inhalt von Equal Voices besteht aus Artikeln und Dokumentarberichten mit Analysen, neuen Untersuchungen, Erhebungen, Beiträgen von Experten, Kon- Impressum zepten für eine erfolgreiche Integration und Kommentaren. Die in diesem Magazin Publisher: veröffentlichten Meinungen müssen nicht unbedingt mit denen des EUMC übe- European Monitoring Centre on Ra- reinstimmen. cism and Xenophobia (EUMC) Um das Magazin weiter zu entwickeln, nehmen wir gerne Ihre Kommentare, Anre- A-1060 Vienna, Rahlgasse 3 gungen und Vorschläge zu Fragen entgegen, die in dem Magazin behandelt wer- Tel.: +43 (1) 580 30 - 0 den sollen. Sie können uns per E-Mail erreichen: [email protected] Fax: +43 (1) 580 30 - 93 Email: [email protected] Alle wichtigen Artikel aus Equal Voices werden in englischer ,französischer und Web: http://eumc.europa.eu deutscher Sprache auf der EUMC-Website veröffentlicht: http://eumc.europa.eu Editors: Beate Winkler, Waltraud Etz Das EUMC-Team John Kellock, Andreas Accardo Art work: Luc Schwartz ISSUE 18 June 2006 3 Editorial serve as food for thought for the dis- journalists need to be better in- cussions around the EU’s plans in formed about societies that they live this field. in and report on. The protection from hate speech has This issue of the EUMC’s Magazine to go hand in hand with the enjoy- Equal Voices brings together differ- ment of the right to freedom of ex- ent views on the issue: NGOs, repre- pression – only together, they make sentatives of different religious com- democracy meaningful. In fact, free- munities, and media experts explain dom of expression is a core value in how they think hate speech can be Photo: Copyright Bruckberger all the 25 Member states but has tackled, and how freedom of speech The recent months have seen a never been defined as an absolute should be applied in our societies. heated debate on freedom of speech right in European societies: All EU The EUMC has collected a diverse and hate speech, particularly with re- Member States maintain certain lim- range of views and opinions, some gard to what constitutes racist speech its to freedom of expression, and the of the views are strongly expressed, and Islamophobic expression. How- right to freedom of expression, under some of the views may not be to ever, this topic is not only linked to international law, may be restricted everyone’s taste or liking, but all the current events such as the so-called in order to protect, amongst others, views require considered debate and “cartoon crisis”, but also to the wider the rights of others, or public order. are part of the oil that drives the ma- issue of racist and antisemitic dis- These restrictions are defined and chinery of democracy. The editors course. We therefore have to address enforced by national law and the have therefore decided to leave the key questions such as: “What does Council of Europe’s Human Rights articles basically unedited. We freedom of speech mean, and where Convention. The proposed EU would therefore like to underline that are its limits? What does, in particu- Framework Decision would now ask the views expressed in the articles lar, qualify as hate speech – and how Member States to ensure that public are those of the respective authors can the limits be drawn between the incitement to hatred or public insults and do not necessarily reflect the two?” of individuals or groups for a racist opinion of the EUMC. We hope that or xenophobic purpose are punish- this Magazine can give a substantial From an EUMC perspective, pro- able. and multifaceted input into the dis- tecting people from racist and xeno- cussions on freedom of speech and phobic discourse is a basic principle But beyond legal action against its limits. To conclude, from an of any democratic society. Hate racist discourse we should address EUMC point of view, freedom of speech even undermines free expres- the media to look at the opportunities speech must be guaranteed and sion: hate speech and incitement are to improve its reporting and editorial should be applied as broadly as pos- deliberately intended to cause harm standards, and implement its own sible for a democratic functioning of to people or groups of people. That is codes of conduct. There is much to our societies, but at the same time it why the EUMC strongly supports be gained by the media through must be also be ensured that people the planned EU Framework Deci- working more closely with civil so- are protected from hate speech and sion on Racism and Xenophobia, ciety and faith-based organisations, abuse. Freedom of speech is not an which has been proposed by the Eu- for example, to counter deliberate or end in itself, but a means to a free so- ropean Commission. This edition of inadvertent stereotyping and present ciety. So is respect for diversity – on the Equal Voices coincides with a a more complete and contextualised the basis of human rights. conference on the planned EU picture of the various communities Framework Decision on Racism and living together. There is also the long Beate Winkler Xenophobia, so this magazine shall standing argument that tomorrow’s EUMC Director The EUMC has a new Web-Address http://eumc.europa.eu ISSUE 18 June 2006 4 Interview with Commission Vice Presi- dent Franco Frattini - “We must not allow the minority of extremists to win”. Mr. Vice-president, the past months have seen a heated debate about publishing or not publishing the “Mohammed cartoons” that ini- tially appeared in a Danish newspa- per in September 2005. What is your personal conclusion from this debate? The so-called “cartoons debate” has indeed been a heated one. I would like to believe that its most tense phase is now behind us, and that we can concentrate on the fu- ture. As President Barroso explained before the European Parliament, the debate has raised several wider issues. I think that for each of them, we have drawn some les- sons that will hopefully guide us towards deepening mutual under- standing and respect. During the debate, we have recog- nised that the publication of the cartoons aggrieved many Mus- lims all over the world, and that it is important to respect sensitivi- 2006 ties. We have also been very firm unity, in our condemnation and rejection of violent reactions, and we have noted that they have been the re- action of a minority, disowned by many Muslims. Equally, we have reaffirmed that our European so- ciety is based on the respect for the individual person’s life and freedom, equality of rights be- Photo: Copyright: European Comm tween men and women, freedom Vice President Franco Frattini, European Commissioner responsible of speech, and a clear distinction for Justice, Freedom and Security between politics and religion.
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