http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/nz-braces-for-cartoon-fallout/2006/02/05/1139074093234.html?page=2
New Zealand is braced for fallout from the Islamic world after two newspapers published controversial Danish cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, with a potential trade ban by Iran the main concern.
New Zealand diplomats in Muslim countries were also warned to take precautions against possible threats to staff and property, the Sunday Star Times reported.
The New Zealand government attacked the two newspapers, both owned by Australia’s Fairfax group, with Trade Negotiations Minister Jim Sutton dubbing them “gratuitously offensive” and saying that by upsetting Muslim nations the publishers were putting the nation’s economy at risk.
The government’s immediate worry was a reported threat by Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to review all economic relations with countries where the cartoons had been published.
Iran is an important market for New Zealand, buying more than $NZ100 million ($91 million) in goods annually from the world’s biggest exporter of dairy products.
Reports of demonstrators setting fire to Denmark’s embassy in Syria’s capital Damascus in protest against the original publication of the caricatures in September in a Danish newspaper led news bulletins this morning on Radio New Zealand.
Some Muslim shopkeepers reportedly refused to sell the two newspapers – Wellington’s Dominion Post and Christchurch’s The Press – which claimed they published the cartoons as part of “the battle between freedom of speech and religion”.
Javed Khan, president of the Federation of Islamic Associations, said that Muslim groups in New Zealand would discuss whether to lodge complaints with the race relations commissioner and Ethnic Affairs Minister Chris Carter, or to take up the issue directly with the papers.
“It is hard to see why the publication of cartoons known to be deeply offensive to Muslim communities is such an important point of principle to the New Zealand media who have published them,” Carter said yesterday.
“What good did it do publishing these cartoons and what damage could it do to communities in New Zealand and to New Zealand’s international reputation?”
New Zealand’s Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres said the controversy surrounding the cartoons’ publication has highlighted a need for dialogue on press freedom, and the responsibility of the press in exercising that freedom.
“The publication of the cartoons has caused great offence to Muslims, and one has to ask what media purpose has been served by their publication.”
De Bres called for dialogue between different media organisations in New Zealand, as well as with religious communities, on how press freedom can be protected and exercised without causing offence.
“There is clearly a difference of view even among our newspapers about the issue in this instance, with our largest newspaper, the New Zealand Herald, deciding not to publish the cartoons, and two other papers taking the opposite view.”
De Bres said people who were offended by the publication can complain to the newspapers, and further to the New Zealand Press Council.
He said the national interfaith forum being held at Parliament on February 26-27 would be an opportunity to address the issue.
Meat and Wool New Zealand chairman Jeff Grant said the newspapers’ decision to publish the cartoons had the potential to damage the long-standing high reputation of New Zealand exports.
“We’ve had an association with Iran, for example, for now 40 years – it’s a relationship that’s been developed over a long period of time,” Grant told NZPA.
“We’re well respected for our ability to do halal kill.”
The greatest risk lay in the New Zealand sheep export industry.Grant estimated $NZ100 million ($92 million) of sheep meat was exported to Iran annually.
“(The publication’s) not necessary, it creates a risk that now has to be managed,” Grant said.
Dominion Post editor Tim Pankhurst said on Friday his paper’s publication of the controversial cartoons was an issue of solidarity and supporting press freedom, and he was not setting out to deliberately antagonise the Muslim communities of New Zealand.