Code of Conduct

"Self-Regulation":

One is never surprised to find the EU on the side of "regulation," and so, one is not surprised:

The European Union may try to draw up a media code of conduct to avoid a repeat of the furor caused by the publication across Europe of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, an EU commissioner said on Thursday.... "The press will give the Muslim world the message: We are aware of the consequences of exercising the right of free expression," he told the newspaper. "We can and we are ready to self-regulate that right."

There's a ringing endorsement: "The EU: We are ready to regulate your rights!"

What I particularly like about this is the way that the EU Commissioner, a politician, is telling the press what "we" will say. That is, what we will say: "The press will give... the message... We can and we are ready to self-regulate that right."

Which is to say, to set limits on it. That is just what the Danish cartoon contest was designed to test -- whether Europeans were really free to talk about Islam.

Now we know.