Probe against editor who reprinted cartoons

Prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation against the editor of a newspaper which became the first Russian media outlet to reprint the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that have sparked violence in Muslim countries, officials said today.

The Prosecutor General’s office said in a statement that officials in the Vologda region, some 300 miles north-east of Moscow, have started a probe of Anna Smirnova on charges of using her position to incite hatred,

Smirnova’s Nash Region newspaper reprinted earlier this week cartoons of Prophet Mohammed that were first published in Denmark in September, Russian news reports said today.

The publication was the first such reprint by a Russian media outlet.

Reached by The Associated Press by telephone, a reporter for the newspaper said Smirnova was refusing any comment.

Newspapers in several European countries reprinted the Danish cartoons, triggering massive demonstrations in Muslim countries. Islamic tradition frowns on any depiction of Mohammed, and the satirical nature of some of the Danish cartoons – such as one showing Mohammed’s turban as a bomb – further inflamed some Muslims.

President Vladimir Putin has condemned the publication of the cartoons, apparently fearing that the spiralling tensions over the cartoons could destabilise Russia whose population includes an estimated 20 million Muslims, or nearly 14%.

Meanwhile, in the southern Russian city of Volgograd, authorities quickly moved to shut down a newspaper that published a cartoon that depicted Jesus, Moses, Buddha and the Prophet Mohammed condemning racism.

The city mayor said his order to close the City News was intended “to prevent incitement of enmity on religious national and social grounds, and also to stop the abuse of media freedom,” according to an administration statement.

The drawing illustrated an article titled “Racists Can’t Be in the Government” and depicted Jesus, Moses, Buddha and the Prophet Mohammed watching television. The TV screen showed two groups of people about to start a fist fight, and the drawing was accompanied by a caption that reads, “We did not teach you that.”

Newspaper editor Tatyana Kaminskaya said the cartoon could not have caused offense and said none of the city’s religious communities had complained. The government ordered officials to liquidate the paper within a month.