There must be some irony in the fact that it is the head of the Danish Institute of Human Rights who thinks freedom of speech should be curtailed, while a Turkish lecturer by the name of Mohammad thinks is should be protected.
Human rights experts are enthused by the inclusion of Mohammed cartoons in a new exhibition, scheduled for autumn 2009, about freedom of speech at the Danish media museum in Odense.
The exhibition will include a collection of approximately 40,000 letters, cartoons and newspaper clippings about the crisis precipitated by Jyllands-Posten newspaper publishing cartoons of the prophet Mohammed in September 2005.
'The idea of having an exhibition about freedom of speech has been in the works for a while, and it's not only because of the Mohammed cartoons that we're going ahead with it,' said Ervin Nielsen, director of Danmarks Mediemuseum.
Morten Kjærum, the head of the Institute of Human Rights, said: 'The exhibition is a very positive event and hopefully there will be a discussion about how to communicate on a global level.'
Mehmet Ümit Necef, lecturer at Syddansk University, agreed.
'It can allow Danes and foreigners alike the opportunity to think over what happened during the cartoon crisis,' he said. 'Further, the exhibition will show that we must protect the concept of freedom of speech.'
Neither Kjærum nor Necef believed that the exhibition would instigate another crisis.
In addition to the cartoons and material associated with them, programmes, newspaper clippings and other texts, that have caused crises or challenged the press's right to freedom of speech, will also be exhibited.
Danmarks Mediemuseum documents printmaking, the history of the press and the electronic media and their recent development, as well as the role the media on Danish society.
Source: Copenhagen Post (English)
See also: Denmark: Mohammed cartoons to museum
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