London, England - Thousands of copies of a university newspaper in Wales have been recalled after it published a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed which first appeared in a Danish newspaper, it has emerged.
The students' union at Cardiff University said the editor of Gair Rhydd, which in the Welsh language means "free word", and three other student journalists were suspended Tuesday pending an investigation.
The weekly is believed to be the first newspaper in Britain to have published any of the 12 cartoons that first appeared in Denmark's best-selling Jyllands-Posten newspaper in late September and have triggered sometimes violent protests around the world.
Gair Rhydd reprinted one of the drawings.
"The opinions expressed in that publication are those of the editorial team independently of the students' union or university," a spokeswoman for the Cardiff University students' union said.
"The editorial team enjoy the normal freedoms and independence associated with the press in the UK and are expected to exercise those freedoms with responsibility, due care and judgment.
"The students' union very much regrets any upset caused or disrespect shown by the publication of the controversial cartoon and has taken immediate action by promptly withdrawing all copies of this week's edition of Gair Rhydd at the earliest moment possible."
Gair Rhydd was the winner of a prize last year co-sponsored by the National Union of Students for the best student newspaper in Britain. Its website could not be accessed Tuesday.
A small British socialist newspaper, Solidarity, said Tuesday it was posting all the cartoons on its website "to reiterate the basic idea that freedom of expression must include freedom to be offensive".
"We strongly reject the notion that all Muslims are somehow responsible for Islamist terrorism (but) we do not believe that religious authorities should decide what can or can't be published," the Alliance for Workers' Liberty, which publishes the newspaper, said in a statement.