Denmark seeks EU help to protect media from British libel suits

Mar 16, 2010, 15:20 GMT

Copenhagen - Denmark wants the European Union's executive arm to introduce rules aimed at helping protect Danish newspapers from potential libel suits filed in English courts, which are seen as weighted towards claimants.

Justice Minister Lars Barfoed said it was 'unacceptable' that Danish newspapers could face libel suits over material that was published legally in Denmark.

'It would be very unpleasant and an unacceptable restriction of freedom of speech. That is why I want to raise the matter with the European Commission,' Barfoed told Tuesday's edition of the Berlingske Tidende newspaper.

Fears of legal action have surfaced over rows caused by the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed that were initially published by the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, causing outrage among Muslims and violent protests worldwide in early 2006.

English libel laws have been cited in other instances ranging from celebrities to business leaders and academics.

But Professor Marlene Wind of the Centre for European Politics at Copenhagen University doubts the Danish government's approach, arguing that it would be better to approach the British government directly in a bid to persuade it to change its libel laws.

Last month, Danish daily Politiken was forced to apologize for offending Muslims after it reprinted controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

Politiken also said it had reached a settlement with organizations representing his descendants, who were represented by a Saudi Arabia-based law firm.

The firm has also contacted other Danish newspapers, which in February 2008 reprinted several images of the Prophet Mohammed first published two years earlier by the Jyllands-Posten newspaper and which at the time caused outrage among Muslims and violent protests worldwide.

The cartoons were reprinted after Danish security police disclosed they had averted a plot to murder Jyllands-Posten cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, who had depicted Mohammed with a bomb in his turban.