19 May 2008

Gregorius Nekschot’s arrest condemned by public
Several papers report on the response to last week's arrest of a Dutch cartoonist for alleged incitement to hatred. Last Tuesday, cartoonist Gregorius Nekschot was arrested - his Amsterdam apartment was searched and material was seized  - and he was held for 30 hours before being released.
 
 His arrest stemmed from a complaint made about cartoons on his website in 2005. MPs from the across the political spectrum criticised the arrest.
 
De Volkskrant reports that the lower house says there was a disproportionate number of officers involved in the arrest and that MPs were concerned about the amount of time it took to investigate the complaint.
 
NRC.next carries the headline "The Theo van Gogh of cartoonists" and writes that Nekschot's arrest was fiercely condemned. The paper interviews the man at the centre of the row and a number of other Dutch cartoonists as well.
 
One cartoonist said, "It's not my sort of humour but I believe he should be allowed to draw and publish them". Another said it was "another attempt by the government to limit freedom of expression".
 
Gregorius Nekschot is a pseudonym for the artist who wants to keep his identity secret for safety reasons.

Gregorius is taken from Pope Gregorius IX who started the Inquisition and Nekschot is Dutch for 'shot to the back of the head' or as the cartoonist himself explains, "the way  Communists and Nazis executed people."
 
A columnist in Trouw writes that both the arrest and the manner in which it was carried out are a cause for deep concern.

The paper continues, "The arrest of an artist can only be justified by very serious arguments. A society that prevents artistic expression is playing with fire. In a democracy, freedom of expression is vitally important, a matter of life and death."
 
One fifth of students suffer from fear of failure
 Students across the Netherlands start their final exams today and AD prints the cheering news that 20 percent of Dutch students suffer from various forms of kakorrhaphiophobia or to give it its common name, fear of failure.

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