Caricatures of Mohammed are the same as portraits of Jesus with an erect penis, according to Danish vice prime minister Bendt Bendtsen. Which is interesting, ‘cos Barricade (anarchist) infoshop got busted for obscenity for selling a t-shirt with that image on it all the way back in 1995 (or was it ’96?), along with a pamphlet (Robynski, Nechaev And Bakunin: Left Libertarianism’s Lavender Lineage, Autonomous Tendency, Northcote (Victoria), 1994). Anyway, like the Lebanese TV drama, The Storm Rages Twice.
7:30 Report
ABC
Broadcast: 06/02/2006
TV PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT
Art prompts call for flag-burning law change
Reporter: Heather Ewart
KERRY O’BRIEN: The right to freely express an opinion has taken something of a savaging in recent days. Reaction to a Danish newspaper cartoon that mocked the Prophet Mohammed resulted in the burning of Danish embassies in Damascus and Beirut and widespread protests from London to Auckland. The backlash may not have reached Australian shores, but here, the right of a Melbourne artist to express an opinion – in his case, burning an Australian flag and mounting it as an exhibition piece – has landed him in trouble with the law. The flag, which was to have been on display on a billboard outside a Melbourne gallery, lasted just two days before a policeman, claiming to have acted on complaints, removed it. The artist, Azlan McLennan, says he wants it back. The police say they are considering whether to press charges. Legal experts say there is no case. But in Canberra, Federal Government backbencher Bronwyn Bishop has announced her intention to introduce a private members’ bill outlawing the burning of the Australian flag. Heather Ewart reports.
CROWD CHANTS: Save the Australian flag!
AZLAN McLENNAN, ARTIST: We’re living in a particularly paranoid political climate, I think, and things like burning the flag should be a democratic right, not a privilege.
BRONWYN BISHOP, FEDERAL LIBERAL MP: The flag is the symbol of our nation, it’s the symbol of all things we stand for. It’s the symbol under which men and women have fought and died in the past, and under which men and women are fighting today and it’s time we protected it. [While Kerry O’Brien appears to believe that Bishop’s “announcement” is recent, this report claims she announced her intention to introduce a bill to protect her nearest and dearest at a federal Young Liberal conference on January 21.]
PROFESSOR GEORGE WILLIAMS, CONSTITUTIONAL LAWYER, UNIVERSITY OF NSW: Many people would see burning the Australian flag as being an offensive act, but it is an act that is not by itself illegal under Australian law…
