The Cartoon Controversy in Context: Analyzing the Decisions Not to Prosecute under Danish Law
![handle is hein.journals/bjil33 and id is 375 raw text is: THE CARTOON CONTROVERSY IN
CONTEXT: ANALYZING THE DECISION
NOT TO PROSECUTE UNDER DANISH LAW
St~phanie Lagoutte*
INTRODUCTION
n September 2005, the publication of twelve cartoons in the daily
newspaper Jyllands-Posten started a small storm in the Danish me-
dia.l A few months later, demonstrators around the world organized to
protest the cartoons. In Syria, Lebanon, and Iran, demonstrators acted out
against Danish embassies, making threats and setting fires.2 The storm
became a hurricane, and Denmark found itself in the middle of its big-
gest diplomatic crisis in recent memory. After a few weeks, the storm
abated. A mere nine months had passed since the cartoons' initial publi-
cation when United Nations (U.N.) Secretary General Kofi Annan vis-
ited Denmark on June 18, 2006. In comments to journalists, he observed
that the page had turned in the cartoon controversy and consequently
journalists should forego examination of the past in favor of looking
ahead.3 Notwithstanding the need to avoid inflaming such controversies,
a concern that no doubt motivated Annan's comments, it is equally, if not
more important, to scrutinize such stories to understand their mecha-
nisms and trajectories prior to looking ahead and moving on.
Before unraveling the events of September 2005, it is necessary to
mention an important historical antecedent: Danish prosecution of Nazis
for blasphemy. In 1938, the High Court of Eastern Denmark (0stre
Landsret) confirmed the conviction of a number of Danish Nazis for
blasphemy under section 140 of the Danish Criminal Code for having,
among other things, distributed media that falsely stated that the Talmud
permitted Jewish men to force non-Jewish girls to engage in sexual inter-
* Stdphanie Lagoutte, Researcher at the Danish Institute for Human Rights. Doctor
in Law (University of Paris I Panthdon-Sorbonne, France), Ph.D. (Arhus University,
Denmark). This Article builds on a paper presented to a panel discussion on the Interna-
tional Regulation of Expression, during the inaugural session of the United Nations
(U.N.) Human Rights Council (June 22, 2006), at the Palais des Nations, Geneva,
Switzerland.
1. See Flemming Rose, Muhammeds ansigi [The Face of Mohammed], JYLLANDS-
POSTEN (Den.), Sept. 30, 2005, reprinted in PROFET-AFF,'EREN [THE PROPHET AFFAIR] 14-
15 (Anders Jerikow & Mille Rode eds., Dansk PEN 2006) (reprinting the cartoons) [here-
inafter THE PROPHET AFFAIR].
2. THE PROPHET AFFAIR, supra note 1, at 145-53.
3. DRI 21 O'clock News (DRI television broadcast, June 18, 2006). DRJ is a TV
channel of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, a public broadcasting company.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/bjil33&div=15&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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The Cartoon Controversy in Context: Analyzing the Decisions Not to Prosecute under Danish Law
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