THE MOHAMMED CARTOONS CRISIS IN THE BRITISH AND GREEK PRESS.

The recent controversy (2006) over the depiction of Prophet Mohammed in cartoons published originally in the Danish press and later re-published in several European dailies offers a suitable opportunity to study the emergence of a European public sphere. Although the controversy started in Denmark, it soon acquired a transnational character. Editors and journalists throughout the EU mobilised, upholding or criticising their publication. The crisis was not only international in nature but also specifically European in that it called into question important political principles such as freedom of expression and respect for other religions, as well as the limits of implementing these principles in practice. This study offers a critical overview of the coverage of the Cartoons Crisis in the British and Greek press. More specifically, we check how the event has been framed in the British and Greek media discourse, paying particular attention to whether the overall crisis was linked to notions of Europe and European values or rather to national actors and values. We seek thus to assess whether themes and discursive topoi taken up by the press in the two countries analysed converge or diverge and whether they can be said to belong to a common European discursive space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]