Pamela Taylor - On the closing day of the Council on Friday (March 30), a resolution, offered on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Conferences (OIC) was passed on combating defamation of religion. The vote mirrored the Council’s composition with 24 Arab and Islamic countries voting in favor and 14 EU members and other Western countries voting against. Nine Latin American and African countries sat on the sidelines and abstained.

The OIC resolution made note of the growing phenomenon of ethnic and religious profiling and the defamation of Islam following September 11, 2001. The resolution called on the UN Special Rapporteur on racism to include manifestations of defamation of religion in its reports to the Council.

Democratic states and NGOs defending journalists’ rights are concerned that defamation of religion not be used as a tool to limit freedom of expression. “Defamation, even of religion, is a very delicate freedom of expression issue,” said George Gordon-Lennox, Geneva spokesman for Reporters Without Borders. “You can accuse someone of bad taste or an error in judgment but does that merit the reprimand of imprisonment or a licence to kill?”

Danish cartoon not a conspiracy

But inflammatory media incidents such as the publication in 2005 of a Danish cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed forced the issue of defamation of religion onto the UN agenda. In response, the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, Ambeyi Ligabo of Kenya, traveled to Denmark in April 2006 to investigate the Danish Cartoon matter. He reported to the Council on Tuesday (March 27) that while many Danes agreed that their country was perhaps insensitive, he found “no conspiracy, no plot behind the publication of the drawings”.

Ligabo’s greater concern was how repressive regimes are “speedily adapting new technologies which are often used as tools for political propaganda and conduits for racial discrimination and hate speech”.

People “who dare express opinions different from those of the power that be, are treated like ordinary criminals,” said Ligabo. “Imprisonment or heavy fines on defamation charges are still in fashion, gravely restricting opportunities for an open debate.”

Alireza Taheri, of the Organization for Defending Victims of Violence in Iran, one of NGOs at the Council, said that “free speech and defamation are two different things. Defaming a religion means you do not respect someone’s beliefs and this isn’t just about Islam. All religions should be respected.”

Other religions agree that defamation of religion should be treated separately from political or personal defamation. Peter Prove of the Federation of Lutheran Churches in Geneva said his organization does not favor including defamation of religion in the mandate of the Rapporteur on racism because, he said, it “may lead to confusion and misuse”.

Shoot the messanger

It is nothing new that free speech is under threat by governments using it for propaganda and by others abusing it in the form of hate speech or defamation. What is new is the growth of the internet, blogs and cell phones which make it more difficult to regulate. The temptation in some countries therefore is to crack down and ‘shoot the messenger’. Others seek stricter legislation or better self-regulation.

The responsibility of the media to better police itself to avoid restrictive legislation was the focus of much discussion inside and outside the Council chamber, with a tacit understanding that if there was more of the former governments would need less of the latter.

“Freedom of expression carries with it special duties and responsibilities,” said Rodney Pinter of the Brussels-based International News Safety Institute (INSI), one of the NGOs in Geneva. He said he found “little difference between the media crackdowns in Russia, China and some Islamic countries and the United States “threatening to bomb the TV towers of Al Jazeera”.

“The idea that you are either with us or against us is very damaging,” he said, “whether expressed by the US administration or nationalists and religious fanatics.”