17 January 2013 The announcement of the participation of Muslim intellectual Tariq Ramadan in a conference on ‘Islam and the media’ in Roubaix, Nord Pas-de- Calais, has according to a report in France 3 Nord Pas-de-Calais caused deep local controversy. Segments of the local community have criticized both, the organization Association Rencontre et Dialogue…
2 October 2012 Following speculation that anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders would not be permitted to visit Australia, immigration minister Chris Bouwen has announced that a visa will be issued. Bouwen told ABC radio that the visa procedure had taken an extended time period because “we had to find a balance between our freedom of…
20 September 2012 Media coverage of ongoing international controversies surrounding the movie Innocence of Muslims tracks the responses of Dutch politicians, particularly to statements from the European parliament speaker Martin Schulz. Dutch Euro-parliamentarian Hans van Baalen announced that Schulz should be standing up for freedom of expression, while Geert Wilders, via Twitter, called Schulz…
Dutch judges have found the European Arab League not guilty of insulting Jews in publishing a cartoon suggesting they invented the Holocaust. The cartoon, first published four years ago and reprinted last year, was intended “to highlight double standards in society”. Judges ruled that while the court considered the cartoon insulting, the right to freedom…
The right to freedom of expression entails duties and responsibilities and is subject to certain limits, provided for in Article 10.2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which are concerned, among other things, with protecting the rights of others. Identifying what constitutes “hate speech” is especially difficult because this type of speech does not…
