The BBC's coverage of the cartoon row is up to its usual high standards. I had the same reaction to lats night's 10 O'Clock News as one of the Harry's Place commenters, who describes how it

showed the cover and inside pages of France Soir newspaper (where various cartoons of Mohammed are reproduced) but did so in a ludicrous, semi-blacked out style thereby preventing viewers seeing what the fuss is about. Treating satirical cartoons as if they were pornography is disgraceful. The BBC (rightly) wouldn't hesitate to show clips from Jerry Springer: the Opera - indeed they broadcast the whole thing. Tonight BBC News demonstrated cowardly, one-eyed pandering to an aggressive lobby group.

Is anyone surprised by this? I came across this despatch from Michael Buchanan on the BBC's website, with a conclusion which is so wrong that it beggars belief:

Denmark's reputation as an easy-going, consensual nation has been severely tarnished in recent days. All the Danes can do now is hope the repeated apologies for the offence caused, by both the government and the newspaper, will end this unseemly row.

Er, no. Denmark's reputation has not been tarnished but enhanced. Free speech prevails, with a government defending it to the hilt. It's not Denmark's reputation which has been tarnished, but that of those Muslim countries which have demanded censorship and an apology, and those Muslims who are burning the Danish flag.

As for the idea that, All the Danes can do now is hope the repeated apologies for the offence caused, by both the government and the newspaper, will end this unseemly row, has a sentence more indicative of the BBC world view ever been written? Take a running jump, Mr Buchanan. So much for the BBC as a stout defender of free speech.

All the Danes can and should do now is carry on standing up for the basic Western value of free speech, and hope that other nations do the same.