Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
What's wrong with this picture? The US, home of the first amendment, plays "yeah, but" games with freedom of expression over the Danish caricatures; Russia, for so long the world's leading agent of repression, takes a strong stand in favor of a free press:
A Moscow museum has announced it will exhibit the entire series of cartoons of Mohammed that have caused riots throughout the Islamic world.Yury Samodurov, director of the Sakharov Museum and Public Center, said on Russian television that the center was ready to organize a public exhibition of the cartoons satirizing the founder of Islam that originally were published in a Danish newspaper, Pravda.ru reported Monday.
"We must show the whole world that Russia goes along with Europe, that the freedom of expression is much more important for us than the dogmas of religious fanatics," Samodurov said.
It is both poignant and appropriate that a museum named for Andrei Sakharov, the Soviet physicist whose bravery in speaking truth to power in Moscow made him an international symbol of freedom of conscience and sparked a silent revolution in his home country, would be taking this stand. And it's sad to me that my own government has grown so weak kneed in defending its own principles that it cannot make the unequivocal statement that even our former enemies are willing to make.
Comments
Um, Russia and "free press" don't really belong in the same sentence. And while I'm not saying that it's the motive in this case, anti-Muslim bigotry is widespread in Russia, especially Russia, since the second Chechnyan conflict.
Posted by: Ginger Yellow
| February 8, 2006 10:56 AM
That should have been "I'm not saying that it's necessarily the motive". Bear in mind that this museum would be taking a lot bigger risk by displaying cartoons of Putin. The FSB certainly wouldn't allow the sorts of protests seen in Europe, let alone any violent reprisal.
Posted by: Ginger Yellow
| February 8, 2006 10:58 AM
Ginger said it. I am sure Russia would be reacting a lot differently were the cartoons in question about Russia. They may be speaking out for freedom of expression in this case, but at home they are sinking back into totalitarianism, especially in the area of science, but also in journalism and elsewhere.
Posted by: sho
| February 8, 2006 12:23 PM
Putin is the most repressive russian leader since the early 70s.
Posted by: Matthew
| February 8, 2006 4:37 PM
Russia is playing to make the kind of "nice impression" Ed is experiencing. I wouldn't trust them a bit.
Posted by: Roman Werpachowski
| February 8, 2006 7:08 PM
I certainly don't trust the Russians a bit. But this particular museum is on the right side on this one, as I said.
Posted by: Ed Brayton
| February 8, 2006 7:26 PM