Quote Originally Posted by Sjakihata
BBC has just broadcast the caricatures, nice try Mr Mandelson, to no avail.
As if Mandelson didn't know beforehand that they would be re-published. There is nothing he can do about it, despite Fragony's suggestions that EU Commissioners have Darth Vader like powers to vaporise obstinate editors.

But what he has done is distance himself and the European Union from the policy of some papers (i.e. from the caricatures in question, not from the right to publish those caricatures). People who question Mandelson's attitude apparently have trouble understanding the concept of free speech. Free speech applies to governemts as well, and it includes their right to distance themselves from expressions they find inappropriate or unhelpful.