NZ diplomats brace themselves for trouble over cartoons

New Zealand diplomats are on high alert in Muslim countries against a possible backlash following publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammad, while exporters are being urged to sue the media involved.

The controversial cartoons, which have provoked violent protest around the world after their publication in several European countries, were published by Fairfax papers The Dominion Post, The Press and The Nelson Mail, and broadcast by both TV3 and TVNZ.

Following a meeting yesterday between Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres, Islamic groups and media, a statement was issued saying all accepted media had not set out to offend, that they had apologised for causing offence, but did not apologise for publishing the cartoons.

The Dominion Post and The Press newspapers' editors promised not to use the cartoons again.

However, TV3 and TVNZ have not made the same commitment.

In addition to the outcry from New Zealand's Muslim community, New Zealand's trade in countries such as Jordan has been threatened.

Speaking yesterday, Prime Minister Helen Clark said diplomats were on "full-time watch".

She said she understood that in Jordan there had been a resolution of the majority of the members of the Parliament through a petition to act against New Zealand.

"And if they didn't act... the majority would act against the government in Jordan itself which is obviously worrying," she told reporters during her talks in Canberra with Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

However, she said she had not yet been informed of any official move by Jordan or Iran.

New Zealand's meat trade with Jordan is worth $32 million, while its trade with Iran has been worth $76 million over the past 12 months.

Miss Clark said New Zealand diplomats were monitoring the situation and had been asked to make it clear that the Government was promoting inter-faith dialogue.

"I have said very firmly that I feel the decision to publish in New Zealand was ill-judged and gratuitous," she said.

"I have said for the record that neither the publications nor the extreme reactions to the publications do anything to advance the understanding between faiths."

An inter-faith forum in Cebu, Philippines next month would be an important opportunity to build bridges, she said.

"We have conviction that faith communities need to be talking to each other, not past each other. Unfortunately there has been too much of the latter in the recent cartoon controversy."

Meanwhile, Meat and Wool New Zealand chairman Jeff Grant said companies whose exports to Islamic countries had been affected should seek redress.

"[They] should take the opportunity,... of claiming that cost," Mr Grant told a news conference in Wellington yesterday.

Asked whether companies should also look at removing their advertising business from the newspapers that published the cartoons, Mr Grant said individual dairy and meat companies would make their own commercial decisions on the issue.

Trade Negotiations Minister Jim Sutton said that by upsetting Muslim nations the newspaper publishers put the nation's economy at risk.

Commonwealth Press Union secretary and chief executive of NZPA and the Newspaper Publishers' Association, Lincoln Gould, said contact between media groups and the Muslim community in New Zealand would continue.

The CPU had already invited Mr de Bres and Javed Khan, president of Federation of Islamic Associations to its media freedom committee meeting at the end of the month.

"I think education and understanding is the key to overcoming these problems," he said.

- NZPA