Via the BBC: Chirac warns media over cartoons
As another French publication printed the cartoons, Mr Chirac said any subject matter that could hurt other people’s convictions should be avoided.
While I will concede that there are times when the offensive nature of an item might preclude publication (indeed, newspapers makes such decisions all the time), the idea of a standard that we should avoid “hurt[ing] other people’s convictions” is pretty ridiculous. Such a standard would pretty effectively eviscerate freedom of the press and speech.
And to be fair to Chirac, the US State Department’s response to the situation was rather anemic as well.