Danish film director Karsten Kjær has reacted with anger and astonishment at a decision by the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) not to show his film Bloody Cartoons, which analyses the controversy surrounding the publication of caricatures depicting the prophet Muhammad by a Danish newspaper in early 2006. The film is part of the world's largest international documentary project called Why Democracy?In October this year, more than 300 million people around the world will have access to ten documentaries concerning democracy. About 40 TV companies are involved in the project. Only nine of the films are to be aired by YLE. The decision to shelve Bloody Cartoons is exceptional: even the Al-Arabiya,the second-most popular TV channel in the Middle East, will air the film on November 11th. Kjær says that in Britain, the BBC pondered whether or not to allow shots showing the controversial cartoons during the airing of the documentary. The BBC decided to show the cartoons, even though it would not do so while the controversy itself was raging.
