An election stunt by Dutch daily De Telegraaf has gone awry as Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders is accusing the paper of censorship.
De Telegraaf has offered five party leaders one page each in the Monday edition of the paper, which they can edit according to their own ideas.
Mr Wilders was planning to include a cartoon depicting the prophet Mohammed on his page, where the anti-Islam politician wanted to discuss freedom of expression. Telegraaf Editor Sjuul Paradijs has said such cartoons are “needlessly offensive”.
Freedom of expressionThe Dutch maker of the disputed cartoon, who is using the pseudonym Nekschot, was briefly arrested in 2008 on charges of discrimination and incitement to violence. Mr Wilders and other politicians were outraged at this arrest, quoting the constitutionally enshrined freedom of expression. The public prosecutor’s decision to investigate Mr Nekschot was considered ill-judged and premature; no court case followed the arrest.
Mr Wilders has told the press he will fill his page in the Monday Telegraaf, but leave an empty space where the cartoon would have been, captioning it with a brief explanation. He will publish the cartoon, however, on the Freedom Party website.
The leaders of the other four parties who are filling pages on Monday, conservative VVD, Christian Democrats, Labour, and democrat party D66, have not reacted to the banning of the cartoon.