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STRASBOURG, Dec 17, 2008 (AFP) - The European Parliament banned a planned screening on Wednesday of an anti-Islamic film made by far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders, a British eurodeputy complained.
"The banning of this film is a direct attack on free speech," said British Independent MEP Gerard Batten, who had organised the event.
"A parliament that constantly talks of freedom, democracy and tolerance has shown once again that these are empty words when it does not agree with what is being said," added Batten, a member of the eurosceptic UK Independence Party (UKIP).
The 17-minute film called "Fitna," which in Arabic means war, or division, in the heart of Islam, has been called "offensively anti-Islamic" by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Featuring shocking imagery of the attacks on New York in 2001 and Madrid in 2004 combined with quotes from the Koran, Islam's holy book, it has drawn protests and outrage in some Muslim countries.
Batten said that at the same time the parliament in Strasbourg was awarding its Sakharov Prize in absentia to jailed Chinese dissident Hu Jia, European party leaders "deny free speech to one of its own members".
Wilders is the head of the Freedom Party, which has nine seats in the Dutch parliament.
He has called for the banning of the Koran in the Netherlands, calling it "fascist."
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