mediawatchwatch.org.uk

Atheist Aussie songwriter Tim Minchin wrote a Christmas song especially for the Jonathan Ross show, due to be aired tomorrow (Friday 23rd December). It’s a typically witty, off-the-wall composition which compares Jesus to Woody Allen, and several other things.

Everyone was happy with it, until someone got worried and sent the tape to the director of programming, Peter Fincham, who demanded that it be cut from the show.

Minchin states

He did this because he’s scared of the ranty, shit-stirring, right-wing press, and of the small minority of Brits who believe they have a right to go through life protected from anything that challenges them in any way.

This is indeed a very disappointing decision.

Hats off to Charlie Hebdo. This is tomorrow’s cover:

Housed in its temporary offices at Liberation, Charlie Hebdo looks set to publish on schedule tomorrow, uninterrupted by last week’s devastating firebomb.

Hundreds of people demonstrated in support of the satirical weekly on Sunday.

The president of SOS Racism was among the supporters, declaring that

In a democracy, the right to blaspheme is absolute.

Editor “Charb” said,

We need a level playing field. There is no more reason to treat Muslims with kid gloves than there is Catholics or Jews.

Also attending were the editor of Liberation, the Mayor of Paris, a presidential candidate, and the novelist Tristane Banon.

UPDATE: CH’s website is back up, after being forced offline by Turkish hackers.

The French satirical paper has reacted defiantly to the firebombing of its offices by teaming up with Liberation to produce a special supplement which reproduces the controversial images. The 4-page wraparound was distributed with Thursday’s edition of the daily newspaper.

The staff of Charlie Hebdo insisted on their “right to poke fun”, and the editor, Stephane Charbonnier, said in an article contained in the extra:

We thought the lines had moved and that maybe there would be more respect for our satirical work, our right to mock. Freedom to have a good laugh is as important as freedom of speech.

Liberation‘s editor, Nicolas Demorand, said his paper’s offices were opened to Charlie Hebdo staff as “a basic gesture of solidarity”.

They will also print an extra 175,000 copies of Wednesday’s edition of Charlie Hebdo, as the initial print run of 75,000 sold out quickly.

Nice work, firebombers.

The offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has been firebombed, causing extensive damage, because the latest edition, entitled Charia Hebdo, carried a cartoon of Mohammed on the cover.

A single petrol bomb was thrown through the window at approximately 3am. There were no injuries.

This is not the first time Charlie Hebdo has been on the receiving end of Muslim rage. MWW covered extensively the protests, and the trial and acquittal of its editor Philippe Val which followed the publication of this special edition:

The Dutch cabinet has responded to unnecessary and inappropriate demands from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to “take necessary and appropriate action to contain the campaign of hatred and incitement by Wilders”.

Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal says:

The Dutch Government will continue to reject any call to gag a politician. The Netherlands enjoys freedom of expression and attaches great value to it.

We’ll take that as a “no” then.

Rosenthal did take pains, however, to point out that Wilders view’s do not reflect those of the Dutch government.

If you thought the Organisation of the Islamic Conference was becoming less hysterical and demanding in its old age you woud be making a forgivable mistake. After all, this year they finally dropped their 12 year campaign to get the UN to adopt an international blasphemy law. But they have just changed their name to Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and are back with even more unreasonable demands.

In a June 30 Press Release on Islamophobia they attempt to intimidate the Dutch government into overturning the recent court decision to acquit Geert Wilders of incitement to hatred.

The Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in a statement issued in Astana today during the holding of the 38th session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers, strongly condemned the continued attacks on Islam and insult and vilification of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and his wives by the extremist Dutch right wing politician Geert Wilders. The 0IC Secretary General said that Mr. Wilders has taken upon himself a dangerous path of derailing inter civilizational harmony and peace by spreading and fanning hatred against Islam and Muslims in his own country as well as in other European countries.

Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said that the vilification of Islam and the sacred image of the Prophet Muhammad by Wilders has reached a stage when it can no longer be tolerated under any pretext including the right to freedom of expression. He urged the Government or Netherlands to take necessary appropriate action to contain the campaign of hatred and incitement by Wilders who is a coalition partner of the Dutch Government. He expressed serious concern that the silence of the Dutch Government in this respect may undermine the existing good bilateral relations between the 0IC Member States and the Netherlands.

It will be interesting to see what form not tolerating the vilification of Islam under any pretext will take. Will rabble-rouser Ihsanoglu tout his grievances around the various member states and stand back in horror as embassies are burned and people are killed in the resulting chaos, all the time pretending that he was the one trying to calm everything down? He’s done it before.

If you are surprised by this, then you haven’t been paying attention.

Catholic blowhard Bill Donohue of the Catholic League has succeeded in his campaign to force the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery – a publicly funded institution – to remove a video exhibit which he found offensive.

The video formed part of an exhibition about sexual identity in American art. It was created by artist David Wojnarowicz, and featured a montage of many images. It seems that the one which gave Donohue the willies was of black ants crawling over a crucifix. This, according to Donohue, is “hate speech”.

Here it is:

—-

This is not the first time the Smithsonian has offended us

said the demented muncher of Jesus biscuits.

If they’re concerned about making a statement about AIDS, they could have chosen a better way to do it instead of insult us.

Because, obviously, the main concern of any artist is to carefully avoid offending the delicate sensitivities of the superstitious.

UPDATE: (3 Dec) A round-the-clock protest about the Smithsonian’s craven decision is being staged by a Washington art gallery. Wojnarowicz’s video will be shown in the front window of the Transformer Gallery every day and night until it is reinstated in the National Portrait Gallery.

The president and the co-founder of Transformer Gallery have written an open letter of protest to the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

You must know – but in the event you do not – we the undersigned are here to tell you that your right-wing critics, including in the Congress, know nothing and care nothing about art. They care not a wit about freedom of expression, or free speech, or “the American promise of equality, inclusion and social dignity.”

The National Coalition Against Censorship has also spoken out against the Republican Representatives who complained.

Anybody is entitled to criticize an art show, but First Amendment principles bar government officials from suppressing controversial viewpoints and imposing the values held by one religious group on society at large.

At least until somebody uploads some more Ataturk videos.