The European Union has come out against the worldwide trend of using religious defamation laws to limit press freedom.

EU diplomats convened in Geneva Wednesday to deliberate strategies to protect free speech in spite of growing legal barriers.

The worrying trend can found on a global scale across all media formats. Although the context differs in each case, examples of restriction on religious grounds can be found in Morocco, Jordan, Belarus and Malaysia.

At the conference, Germany voiced particular concern over a recently signed Arab charter limiting broadcaster's rights.  

According the International Herald Tribune, many Islamic countries are pushing for stricter anti-religious defamation laws, a byproduct of the intense controversy over the prophet Muhammad cartoons.

Source: International Herald Tribune