The UPEI student newspaper, the UPEI Cadre, was the focus of controversy last week when it was pulled from newsstands by the university’s istration for having reprinted a controversial series of editorial cartoons depicting the Muslim prophet Mohammed. First printed in September by Jyllands-Posten, a Danish
newspaper, the cartoons have been the cause of protests and demonstrations all over the world, including Toronto and Montreal.
Originally, they were intended to criticize the perceived censorship of the Danish media; however, the implications of the drawings have elicited heated responses. Jyllands-Posten has since apologized for soliciting and printing the cartoons, but publications like the UPEI Cadre have still chosen to reprint them.
Edward Greenspan of The Globe and Mail put it aptly in his “Letter from the Editor” when he said that not reprinting the cartoons is “a question of editing,” not censorship. Although we at the Journal firmly stand behind freedom of the press and freedom of expression, we do not the decision to print such blatantly offensive caricatures, especially with the knowledge that in Islam, it is strictly stipulated that Mohammed is not to be artistically represented.
While the UPEI Cadre’s position that the cartoons facilitate dialogue is somewhat understandable, reprinting the cartoons was not the only way to discuss the ramifications of respecting religious beliefs in the context of freedom of the press. We believe that to reprint them would be a gratuitous attention-getting strategy, particularly when the cartoons have already been so widely circulated online. As Greenspan wrote, “it didn’t seem to be a matter of publish and be damned, but more like ‘damn you,’ and publish, a course bound to generate more heat than light.”
The violence in response to these cartoons is not constructive, however. If anything, it is further propagating and fuelling belief in the negative stereotypes depicted by the cartoons. Recently, Tehran’s Hamshahri, Iran’s top-selling newspaper, has proposed its own contest requesting caricatures about the Holocaust. The Times reports the Hamshahri’s graphics editor as having said: “the Western papers printed these sacreligious cartoons on the pretext of freedom of expression, so let’s see if they mean what they say and also print these Holocaust cartoons.” This strategy of testing public reaction to content known to have the potential to offend—the same one employed by Jyllands-Posten in soliciting and printing the cartoons—will likely contribute to further violence and xenophobia.
The university istration should not have pulled the UPEI Cadre from campus. Freedom of the press is, after all, a right. However, it is a right that must be exercised respectfully and responsibly, which Jyllands-Posten and the reprinting newspapers failed to do. That said, the backlash that has ignited, particularly the call for Holocaust cartoons, will offer no solution and will more likely add fuel to the flames.
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