Foreign Secretary Jack Straw today launched a fierce attack on the decision by some media to republish cartoons of the prophet Mohammed.
Speaking at a news conference he said: "There is freedom of speech, we all respect that. But there is not any obligation to insult or to be gratuitously inflammatory.
"I believe that the republication of these cartoons has been insulting, it has been insensitive, it has been disrespectful and it has been wrong."
But Mr Straw, praised some sections of the British media for showing "considerable responsibility and sensitivity" in its approach to the issue.
However, the BBC and Channel 4 yesterday broadcast the cartoons, risking a Muslim backlash.
With Palestinian gunmen threatening abductions after newspapers in Europe reprinted the caricatures, the corporation broadcast the images on its main news bulletins as they had appeared in one French paper.
More significantly, they were also shown on BBC World - the international channel seen around the globe, including the Middle East.
No British news organisation had previously shown the cartoons, which were first printed by a Danish newspaper. The BBC showed the cartoons on the Six O'Clock News in shots of the French paper Paris Soir - as did Channel 4 News, Sky News and Five News.
Last night, the Muslim Association of Britain branded the use of the images an incitement to racial hatred unprecedented in the BBC's history.
