A pox on both of them
Here’s a brain teaser for you, a little microcosm of the entire Mohammad cartoon issue.
Do you condemn a UPEI student paper for publishing all 12 of the Danish cartoons, something no other publication in North America has done, or do you condemn the UPEI administration for stepping on the freedom of the student press for recalling all the papers?
Also: The New York Times has an excellent article in its arts section on the power of imagery.
February 13th, 2006 at 11:12 am
For an excellent discussion of the censorship of the UPEI Cadre in the context of the history of freedom of speech, see:
http://sixthcolumn.blogspot.com/2006/02/fitzgerald-needed-refresher-course-in.html
Here’s an excerpt:
In seizing issues of a student publication containing those cartoons, Wade MacLauchlan, President of the University of Prince Edward Island, explained: “We see it [the publication of the cartoons] as a reckless invitation to public disorder and humiliation.” Wade MacLauchlan needs a refresher course in freedom of speech. He needs to read Milton’s Areopagitica. He needs to learn about John Peter Zenger. He needs to read “Freedom of the Mind in Human History.” He needs to understand that a recognized right which can no longer be exercised out of fear of a violent response by those who not only claim to be offended, but do not recognize such a general right in their own, quite different world — a world where the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has no place — is a right that no longer exists.
March 8th, 2006 at 8:28 pm
Writing in the US News and World Report, columnist John Leo has this to say about the censorship of the UPEI student newspaper:
• After the student newspaper at the University of Prince Edward Island in Canada decided to publish the Danish cartoons, University President Wade MacLauchlan stepped in and announced that “it was decided not to permit the distribution” of the issue on campus. In fact, he thought the campus environment was better for halting publication of the cartoons. He wrote: “Why should we choose to repeat an act that had caused so much offense and trouble around the world?”
The president of the student union, which owns the campus paper, fell in line with a mealy mouthed statement: “I guess it is a fine line that we are looking at on a very complex issue … . Freedom of the press is not absolute … . There is also a responsibility to balance it with justice, to portray things properly.”
source:
http://www.johnbowman.net/blog/2006/02/a_pox_on_both_of_them.html