Politicians livid over Politiken settlement

Politicians from a number of parties are livid over the settlement entered into by daily newspaper Politiken and an Arab lawyer concerning the newspaper's publication of Kurt Westergaard's cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad.

The lawyer allegedly represents 94,923 descendants of the Prophet. In the settlement, Politiken editor-in-chief Tøger Seidenfaden deplores the fact that some Muslims were affronted when Politiken published Westergaard's cartoon as part of its coverage of the cartoon crisis.

Insane
This morning, the Friday edition of Politiken was in short supply in Parliament. Social Democrat MP Ole Hækkerup had to visit the DR office in order to borrow a copy.

- It's absolutely insane, commented Ole Hækkerup after reading Politiken's account of the settlement with the lawyer.

His party leader, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, is on the same page:

- You can't have degrees of freedom of speech, and you can't have a dialogue with people who want to decide the contents of Danish newspapers. It's insane, says Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

Facebook protests against editor
Leader of Dansk Folkeparti, Pia Kjærsgaard, calls Seidenfaden's settlement "deeply embarrassing". And a conservative candidate for Parliament from the Zealand great constituency, Finn Möbius, has launched a Facebook initiative to gather 100,000 protests against Politiken. Political spokesman for Socialdemokratiet, Henrik Sass Larsen, has now joined that group.

Det Radikale Venstre, on the other hand, support Politiken and editor Tøger Seidenfaden. Party leader Margrethe Vestager denies that Politiken is undermining free speech.

- Quite the contrary. Politiken is just exhibiting human insight and a willingness to dialogue. Politiken is simply apologizing if some people have felt affronted by Politiken's publication of the cartoons, since Politiken didn't intend to affront Muslims. What's wrong with that? asks Margrethe Vestager.

Translated by Martin Lamberth