Jyllands-Posten

Fritt Ord: Flemming Rose og Vebjørn Selbekk får Fritt Ords Honnør

“Fritt Ords Honnør tildeles avisredaktørene Flemming Rose og Vebjørn Selbekk for deres prinsippfaste forsvar for ytringsfriheten gjennom ti år med karikaturstrid.
Flemming Rose og Vebjørn Selbekk er blitt selve symbolene på karikaturstriden. Gjennom kontinuerlig og modig deltakelse i offentligheten har de fremmet forståelsen av ytringsfriheten som den mest fundamentale menneskerettighet, og grunnlaget for andre friheter. De har begge betalt en meget høy personlig pris for sin innsats og har fått sitt liv forandret. Der mange andre har sviktet, har Rose og Selbekk utvist stort mot i kampen for liberale prinsipper...”
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TIME: Don’t Let Terrorists Determine the Limits of Free Speech

“...What is important is that the mere possibility of sharing ideas has been seriously limited due to terrorist attacks. Unfortunately, terrorism works in this way. Terrorists hate freedom. Their attacks target our culture of equality, religious freedom, freedom of expression, and tolerance.
In The Netherlands, the 4th of May is a day on which we remember those who lost their lives during World War II. After World War II, Europeans pledged to defend freedom. It’s a dark coincidence that on this year’s 4th of May we witnessed a terrorist attack at an event dedicated to free speech, where a Dutch politician made use of one of his rights: the right to speak freely, even about controversial matters. In his brilliant book The Tyranny of Silence, Flemming Rose—whose newspaper published the Danish Muhammad cartoons years ago—asks politicians and intellectuals to join a quest for freedom and to offer protection to those who live under threat. Tyranny can only win when we accept its victory; it takes courage to be free...”
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De Morgen: Interview with Flemming Rose "Eén ding is zeker: ik houd mijn mond niet"

“Flemming Rose is de voormalige chef kunst van de Deense krant Jyllands-Posten. Hij was het die in 2005 twaalf cartoonisten vroeg een paar cartoons te tekenen over de profeet Mohammed. Enkelen onder hen stierven begin dit jaar bij de aanslag op Charlie Hebdo. Toch weigert hij te zwijgen.”
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Lampadia: La autocensura se impone en Europa, Cajamarca y Arequipa

“La Tiranía del Silencio”, del danés que publicó a Mahoma con un turbante-bomba
La autocensura se impone en Europa, Cajamarca y Arequipa
“Yihadistas quieren asesinarme. Pero me niego a ser condenado a una tiranía del silencio sepulcral”, sostiene con serena valentía Flemming Rose, el editor danés que publicara el 2005 en la revista Jyllands-Posten unas caricaturas satíricas sobre el Islam, entre ellas, una en que se ve a Mahoma escondiendo una bomba en su turbante. Esta decisión le valió a Rose que fuera sentenciado a muerte por Al Qaeda y por grupos radicales islamistas.
Pero aparte de estar en esta lista negra y vivir temiendo ser asesinado, “Rose ha sido llamado un nazi, un odiador de musulmanes y un Satanás danés. Ha convivido de manera simultánea con las amenazas de muerte y cargado con las ‘culpas’ por la muerte de 200 o más personas en todo el mundo musulmán que protestaron por la publicación de las caricaturas. Desde entonces, el periodista danés ha estado en el centro de las discusiones entre el respeto a la diversidad cultural y la protección de las libertades democráticas, en especial las de la libertad de expresión”, señala en la introducción.
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Elsevier: Buitenland Doorbreek het dodelijke zwijgen over de bedreigde islamcritici

“...Toen Salman Rushdie ter dood werd veroordeeld door imam Khomeini, richtten intellectuelen Rushdie-comités op. Tegenwoordig heerst er een dodelijke stilte over de bedreiging van journalisten en cartoonisten die de islam op de hak durven nemen.

Flemming Rose is een zachtaardige man. Hij praat bedachtzaam. Ik sprak hem enkele jaren geleden al eens, maar ik herinnerde me weinig van dat gesprek.
In gezelschap van zwaarbewapende mannen heb ik hem letterlijk uit het vliegtuig gehaald. Nu is hij chef buitenland van de grootste krant van Denemarken, Jyllands-Posten...”
“...In zijn boek Tyranny of Silence vertelt hij dat in de Sovjet-detentiekampen, na de dood van de Jozef Stalin in 1953, minstens driehonderdduizend gevangenen zaten die wegens het vertellen van een (incorrect) grapje tot een gevangenisstraf waren veroordeeld.”
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WorldPost: Why I Published Cartoons of Muhammad and Don't Regret It

“...Back in 2005, I was trying to cover a story about self-censorship and fear among writers, artists, museums, publishers, comedians and other people in cultural life in Denmark and Western Europe. A children's writer had made headlines when he claimed that he had difficulties finding an illustrator for a book about the life of the Prophet Muhammad; the reason, he said, was fear. That was the starting point for a debate about self-censorship in dealing with Islam. Several other examples followed. In one example, a Danish comedian admitted he was afraid of mocking Islam the same way he did with Christianity. In another, two imams called on the Danish government to pass laws criminalizing criticism of Islam.
This last example added another dimension to the debate. What do you do when people adhering to a faith or ideology insist that others with different convictions submit themselves to taboos outside sacred places?”
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The Guardian: "A Europe without blasphemy is back in the middle ages..."

“...Though the Copenhagen attack was a shock, it didn’t come as a surprise. As French cartoonist Plantu told me recently when we were chatting in his office at Le Monde in Paris: “This is just the beginning. There will be more attacks.” Unfortunately, I think he is right. This will be a long battle, first and foremost a battle of ideas. The erosion of the crucial distinction between words and deeds – between an image that some may find offensive and actual violence – has created a climate in which “blasphemers” are required to bear responsibility for violent attacks subsequently directed against them. I experienced that myself in 2006 after commissioning drawings of Muhammad published in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in Denmark, and I have tried to explain the mechanisms at work in my book The Tyranny of Silence: How One Cartoon Ignited a Global Debate on the Future of Free Speech. There are people who seriously believe that the organisers of the Copenhagen debate asked for trouble. This is partly due to a new grievance fundamentalism. It heightens the sense of insult and offence, according it enormous social power.”
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Background Briefing with Ian Masters: The Publisher of the Danish Cartoons That Caricatured the Prophet; A World-Renowned Islamic Scholar on Recent Terror in the Name of Islam

“...Since Flemming Rose made the decision to publish the cartoons, we discuss the decision to hold a public event “Art, Blasphemy, and Freedom of Expression” in a Copenhagen café with the controversial Swedish Cartoonist Lars Vilks who also caricatured Muhammad, that provoked a terrorist attack which left a film director at the cafe and a Jewish guard at a synagogue dead. In discussing freedom verses censorship, we look into whether restrictions should be put into place to prevent young European Muslims from being radicalized in prison as was the case with the terrorists responsible for the recent massacres in Paris and the young Danish-born terrorist who was just released from jail two weeks ago...”
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Liberation: La gauche candide sur Charlie

“Cela fait longtemps que je n’ai pas vu Flemming Rose, le journaliste du Jyllands-Posten qui, à l’époque, décida d’imprimer les caricatures de Mahomet. Nous nous croisions de temps en temps sur les pistes cyclables de Copenhague et nous bavardions un moment avant de repartir chacun chez soi. C’est l’un des avantages de vivre dans une petite capitale, en plus de pouvoir se rendre à vélo partout. Chez nous, la société ouverte est aussi facile d’accès.
Personnellement, je n’ai jamais eu une position politique marquée, mais de l’avis de mes amis situés à gauche, Flemming Rose est une voix de droite. On se montrait solidaire de sa liberté d’expression fondamentale, mais on trouvait que c’était une mauvaise idée de publier ces caricatures. On oubliait la cause première de celles-ci : la peur qui avait empêché un auteur de jeunesse connu de trouver un illustrateur pour son projet de livre sur la vie du Prophète. On prenait ses distances avec les caricatures perçues comme une insulte délibérée à l’encontre d’une minorité faible et vulnérable, et on relativisait la menace de violence - il n’y avait qu’une poignée de fanatiques -, pour souligner sa sollicitude multiculturelle à l’égard des sentiments des croyants...”
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Libremente ( ElCato.org.): John Oliver entrena a Rafael Correa

“Recientemente, por motivo de la triste masacre en París de gran parte de quienes hacían la revista satírica Charlie Hebdo, el debate acerca de la libertad de expresión ha recobrado actualidad alrededor del mundo. De manera más específica, se discute hasta qué punto debe la ley limitar la expresión para proteger a todos aquellos grupos y/o individuos que se sienten ofendidos. Flemming Rose, editor del diario danés Jyllands-Posten y quien autorizó en septiembre de 2005 la publicación de la notoria caricatura en la que sale el Profeta Mahoma con una bomba en su turbante, considera que el momento que debatimos esos límites hemos abierto la puerta a un sinnúmero de excusas para que los estados autoritarios e incluso totalitarios restrinjan el derecho de hablar libremente y persigan a minorías. Rose agrega que:
“Uno casi se siente tentado a pedirle a los Estados de Bienestar de Europa que gasten algo de dinero no en la ‘capacitación de sensibilidad’ —aprender qué es lo que no se debe decir— sino en la capacitación para ser menos sensible: aprender a tolerar. Es que si la libertad y la tolerancia han de tener una oportunidad de sobrevivir en el mundo nuevo, todos necesitamos desarrollar una piel más gruesa”.
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