Independent Newspapers has offered to publish an apology for any offence a weekend article caused to Muslims, already in uproar over a series of cartoons lampooning the prophet Muhammad.
”[The] decision to apologise by the Cape Argus was an acknowledgement of an error in judgement,” said Chris Whitfield, editor of the Cape Times, and member of an Independent Group newspaper delegation which met with the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) on Tuesday.
Also present from Independent Newspapers was The Star‘s editor, Moegsien Williams, the Cape Argus‘s Dave Chambers, Daily Voice editor Rashid Seria and editor of Cape community newspapers David Hill.
”We had a lengthy meeting … conducted in a very positive spirit, with frank exchanges of views and airing of various positions,” said Whitfield.
The meeting followed a call by the MJC to boycott Independent Newspapers after it deemed an article published in the Sunday Argus offensive to Muslims.
Initiatives explored at Tuesday’s meeting included the opening of better lines of communication between the MJC, Muslims in general and the newspaper group, said Whitfield.
He said the MJC would go back to its constituency to gauge its response to the offer.
Whitfield confirmed that some subscriptions were recalled and some advertising was lost after the MJC called its ban, but denied that the apology was driven by business imperatives.
He said the matter was essentially a clash between freedom of expression and freedom of religion.
”Perhaps the article in question overstepped a boundary … but I don’t think it has ramifications for freedom of expression.”
Whitfield said the matter was an important reminder to stakeholders to remain sensitive to a community’s religious or other beliefs.
”We gladly accepted their admission that it [publication of the article] was a misjudgement,” said the MJC’s President, Ebrahim Gabriels, who agreed that the meeting had been constructive and positive.
The MJC would lift its boycott if the MJC and Independent Group reached an agreement on the apology, and if the MJC was given newspaper space to explain the Muslim position and its reverence of the prophet Muhammad.
Responding to a question, Gabriels said the MJC was committed to freedom of expression in a secular state.
However, he added: ”We respect the freedom of expression but with limits and boundaries. It doesn’t mean the right to insult the religion of any person in the world.”
Gabriels said the MJC would meet with the Danish ambassador on Wednesday.
Sunday newspapers were banned from publishing the cartoons after a Muslim pressure group was granted a court interdict.
The Jamiat-ul Ulama of Transvaal, which sought an interdict against Johncom Media and Independent Newspapers, among others, said the cartoons were ”deeply offensive”.
Meanwhile, a statement from the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) on Tuesday said it believed the interdict was ”alarming” and amounted to pre-publication censorship.
”It limits freedom of expression in that the decision on whether to publish or not to publish has been taken away from the editors and placed on the shoulders of the court,” said the Sanef statement.
”The editors of the publications that were gagged are aware of the law and the limitations the Constitution has placed on freedom of expression and would respect those. It is not for the courts to assume that the law is going to be broken and make the decision for editors,” said the statement. – Sapa