College Newspapers Struggle Over Muslim Cartoon Question

MADISON, Wis.

      Two editors at the University of Illinois’ student-run newspaper were suspended for deciding to run a series of cartoons that have sparked outrage and violence around the Islamic world without consulting the remaining editorial staff.

      Editor-in-chief Acton H. Gorton says the Daily Illini’s publisher suspended him and the newspaper’s opinions sections editor, Charles Prochaska, for two weeks pending the outcome of an internal investigation into the publication of the cartoons, which ran in the paper’s Feb. 9 edition.

      “I’m very disappointed. I think this is nothing more than a cover-up,” Gorton says.

      Publisher and general manager Mary Cory released a statement shortly after the suspensions saying a student task force will “investigate the internal decision-making and communication surrounding the publishing” of the cartoons.

      The paper’s editorial staff told readers that the decision to run the cartoons was made by Gorton and Prochaska without their knowledge. While the staff apologized to the Muslim community, it stopped short of saying it disagreed with the decision.

      “We want to make it clear that while we do not necessarily disagree with the decision to print these cartoons, we disagree with how they were run,” the editorial reads.

      According to the editorial, Gorton and Prochaska ran the cartoons without consulting the staff or the publisher.

      The Daily Illini, which is independent of the university, ran six of the 12 cartoons first published in September in Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten newspaper. The Daily Illini led with the cartoon that has caused the greatest furor: a depiction of the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb with a lit fuse as part of his turban.