Brussels, Belguim - Plans for a European press charter committing the media to "prudence" when reporting on Islam and other religions, were unveiled yesterday.
Franco Frattini, the European Union commissioner for justice, freedom and security, revealed the idea for a code of conduct in an interview with The Daily Telegraph. Mr Frattini, a former Italian foreign minister, said the EU faced the "very real problem" of trying to reconcile "two fundamental freedoms, the freedom of expression and the freedom of religion".
Millions of European Muslims felt "humiliated" by the publication of cartoons of Mohammed, he added, calling on journalists and media chiefs to accept that "the exercising of a right is always the assumption of a responsibility". He appealed to European media to agree to "self-regulate".
Accepting such self-regulation would send an important political message to the Muslim world, Mr Frattini said.
By agreeing to a charter "the press will give the Muslim world the message: we are aware of the consequences of exercising the right of free expression, we can and we are ready to self-regulate that right", he said.
The code of conduct, as envisaged by Mr Frattini, would acknowledge the importance of respecting religious sensibilities but would not offer a "privileged" status to any one faith.
The European Commission has long had ambitions to introduce EU-wide legislation on fighting racism and xenophobia but has seen them founder amid resistance from national governments.
Mr Frattini said he was keen to move ahead with a voluntary code of conduct, to be drawn up by European media outlets with the assistance of the commission. The code would not have the status of an EU legal instrument and would not be enforceable by Union institutions.
•President Jacques Chirac called the Danish cartoons of Mohammed, published again in France yesterday, "overt provocations" that should be "avoided".
His remarks, unusual in a staunchly secular country, coincided with the reprinting by the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo of all 12 caricatures, plus a few of its own.
"I condemn all obvious provocations which could dangerously fuel passions," Mr Chirac said.
The weekly itself sold almost four times its average circulation of 100,000, a testament to people's "interest in their own freedom," its editor, Philippe Val, said.