INTERIOR MINISTERS FROM 17 Arab countries have issued a joint statement calling on the government of Denmark "to take the necessary measures to punish those responsible." United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan was officially "concerned." Governments from Pakistan to Syria have demanded apologies not just from Denmark but France, Germany, Norway and other Western European governments.
What human rights atrocity has so inflamed their sense of outrage? A Danish newspaper published cartoons. Last September.
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Such sentiments foster the dangerous notion that governments are responsible for, and answerable to, their countries' private media. And it judges all news content, satirical or otherwise, by the standard of how much offense it gives, a surefire path toward self-censorship.
