President EU Parliament: Media Should Realize Consequences of What they Publish about Islam
From the desk of The Brussels Journal on Mon, 2008-04-14 14:19
A quote from Hans-Gert Pöttering, the President of the European Parliament, in The Peninsula (Qatar), 14 april 2008
I will not accept this [equating Islam with terrorism] and we in the European Parliament do not accept that Islam and terrorism are identified as the same thing. We don’t believe in this idea and we reject this idea. […] I express my opposition to this film [Geert Wilders’ Fitna] and the same thing with the Danish cartoons.
We in Europe are committed to the freedom of the press, on the one hand, but on the other the media should develop a sort of self responsibility. They should always know the consequences of what they publish about other cultures.
See also:
Meet the EU Dhimmis, 29 March 2008
Geert Wilders’s Ordeal and the Lessons of the Past, 26 March 2008
More Chickens in the Barn, 10 March 2008
Geese and Ganders (a.k.a. Ducking the issue)
Submitted by Atlanticist911 on Mon, 2008-04-14 16:14.
@ The President of the European Parliament
Why do I NEVER read similar subliminal threats and ultimata from you, directed at the press and media of other cultures, that openly question and malign MY religious and cultural values?
@ Mr. Europe
Submitted by traveller on Mon, 2008-04-14 21:22.
Exalted sir, you are not my elected president and you definitely will never be. I hope for an independent Flanders OUTSIDE your dictatorship. The European Union has completely betrayed the freedom of their citizens and should be abolished fortwith. Shall I be shot now?
Translation
Submitted by marcfrans on Mon, 2008-04-14 15:35.
In short, the President of the European Parliament is saying that the media should allow themselves to be intimidated, because that is what these "consequences" are all about.
He is old enough to remember what the role of the media was in the old DDR. Perhaps, he would have made a 'good' President for the former DDR's 'parliament'. With men like these.....how long can democracy survive?
Free press in the EU? HAHAHAHAHA!!!
Submitted by Amsterdamsky on Mon, 2008-04-14 15:30.
"We in Europe are committed to the freedom of the press"
What a joke. Yeah so very free. Just don't publish anything questioning even the most outrageous "Holocaust" claim. Greece and a few other countries still prosecute for blasphemy as an unfortunate Austrian cartoonist learned the hard way.