mediawatchwatch.org.uk

We interrupt a long blog silence to bring a rare piece of unequivocally good news. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has spoken in defence of Danish Motoonist Kurt Westergaard.

The occasion was the presentation of the M100 Sanssouci Media Award to Westergaard for his defence of free speech. In her presentation speech, Merkel said:

Europe is a place where a cartoonist is allowed to draw something like this… We are talking here about the freedom of opinion and the freedom of the press… It’s about whether in a Western society with its values he [Mr Westergaard] is allowed to publish his Muhammad cartoons, or not. Is he allowed to do it? Yes he is.

Of course, the Central Council of Muslims in Germany criticized the award ceremony. Ayman Mazyek said:

Merkel is honoring the cartoonist who in our view trampled on our prophet and trampled on all Muslims.

No he didn’t. He drew a cartoon.

In a reversal of a decision made by a Dutch court in June, an appeals court fined the Arab European League 2,500 Euros for causing “unnecessary offense” with this Holocaust denying cartoon.

The cartoon was published online by the AEL in an effort to deliberately provoke a prosecution which would prove that

Freedom of expression is only a pretext to make life bitter for Muslims… and if [they] try to bring this hypocrisy to light, that right is denied them.

Abdoulmouthalib Bouzerda, the leader of the AEL, must be happy that he has finally been vindicated.

Beleaguered Danish Motoonist Kurt Westergaard, the one who created the now-iconic “Turbomb” portrait of Mohammed, is to release his autobiography in November.

Early news reports wrongly stated that the controversial cartoon was to adorn the cover of the self-published book, but the publisher was swift to issue a public correction. The front page is illustrated with Westergaard’s ‘farewell” to the Jyllands-Posten (he retired earlier this year).

The Turbomb will appear in the inner pages, however.

Smut campaigners Mediawatch-UK have been tempted back into the spotlight (well, The Daily Mail) by the inappropriate use of a slang term for sanitary towels in one the the country’s leading soaps.

Director Vivienne “Nanny” Pattison got the call after some complaints had been made about the phrase “jam rags” appearing on a chalk-board in Emmerdale. She rose to the occasion with a deftness of touch worthy of her predecessor “Massah” John Beyer:

Clearly whoever wrote that knew exactly what they were doing, and they certainly didn’t need to,

she began, ambiguously.

It’s not a particularly helpful phrase to refer to sanitary towels as “jam rags” , and it is unnecessary.

It didn’t need to be there at all.

There we have it. Mediawatch-UK has come a long way since the hard campaigning days of Mary Whitehouse. No longer is it the nation’s conscience, standing up for Christian righteousness in the face of a liberal media elite. It has become the leading voice in the fight against the not particularly helpful.

Because research shows that if children are exposed to the not particularly helpful every day in the media, they will grow up to be not-particularly-helpful adults.

By Xenu, Scientology is surely the most volcanically stupid cult in history. They’ve just triggered an almighty Streisand Effect by complaining about a Welsh councillor’s Tweet, which said:

I didn’t know the Scientologists had a church on Tottenham Court Road. Just hurried past in case the stupid rubs off.

And now the Twittosphere has erupted in a dawn chorus of tweets tagged #stupidscientology – all variations on the theme of the stupid cult’s idiocy.

That’s the trouble with being stupid – you never learn.

(MWW has been quiet of late, and will continue blogging sparsely for the next month or so. Paying work is currently overwhelming.)

Here’s the offending cover:

It’s a tribute to the Portuguese Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago.

It was all too much for the magazine’s parent company in the US, who have terminated their relationship with the Portuguese publisher.

More at The Freethinker.

Quack laboratory testers, Doctor’s Data, are suing QuackWatch. Here’s the latest letter:

Dr. Barrett,

You have been making false statements about Doctor’s Data and have damaged this company’s business and reputation, and you have done so for personal gain and your own self-interest, disguised as performing a public service. Â Your writings and conduct are clearly designed to damage Doctor’s Data. Â If you don’t retract your false claims and issue a public apology, the lawsuit will be filed.

Today is June 14th, which is the deadline that was in our letter of June 2nd. Because you responded, you have until Thursday, June 17th, to post your retractions. If you do so and show good faith immediately, this will be taken into account in proceeding.

Jeff Levens
Augustine, Kern and Levens, Ltd.

The company specialises in providing “tests” for alternative treatments such as chelation therapy, and presenting the results in a way which is favorable to their clients. Was it clever of them to give the company a name which describes exactly what it does? Or did they not realise that Doctor’s Data sounds like an admission?

The latter, probably. By bringing the lawsuit against QuackWatch, they are exposing themselves to the light.

Two brothers accused of setting fire to the house of Mo-doggie artist Lars Vilks have appeared in a Swedish court, charged with arson.

The evidence against them is quite convincing, and reads like a Chris Morris script:

The evidence against the men included two fire-damaged jackets, a knife, two plastic bottles and a lighter, as well as a pair of underwear and a jackknife.

In one of the jackets that police found at the crime scene, they found a key to the home of one of the brothers.

Further incriminating evidence supporting the charges against the brothers includes the fact that one of the brothers admitted himself to hospital on the same night as the with burns to his legs. The man also smelled of gasoline, according to a hospital employee that chief prosecutor Eva-Marie Persson has called as a witness.

Police were able to demonstrate from the analysis from a seized PC that one of the brothers had searched for Vilks’ address on the internet.

They left their keys and a pair of their pants at the crime scene.

Still, Vilks’ house “suffered extensive damage”, so these mujahideen were more successful in their mission than these clowns, who tried to burn down a publisher’s house with diesel.

Fears fears put about by Geert Wilders et al of an imminent Eurabia are almost certainly misplaced. The evidence suggests that the would-be jihadis in our midst are functional morons.

UPDATE: (15 July) They have been found guilty and jailed.

A court in Pakistan continues the trend of insulting the intelligence of that country’s entire population by ordering seven major websites to be monitored for “blasphemy”. Offending links appearing on Yahoo, Google, MSN, Hotmail (?), YouTube, Amazon and Bing will be blocked, apparently without affecting the main website.

In addition to those seven major sites, another 17 lesser known domains have been blocked.

Facebook was not one of the mentioned sites, in spite of the fact that a court is investigating the possibility of prosecuting its founder, Mark Zuckerberg for blasphemy – an offence which carries the death penalty or life imprisonment.

The crackdown is based on Section 295-C of the penal code which refers to the

Use of derogatory remarks etc, in respect of the Holy Prophet … either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly.