The problem with Bin Laden's videos

There's no denying that they inspire fear: when Osama bin Laden and his fellow-wayfarers propagate their own brand of mass murder by video, the anxiety level in the camp of the threatened can only rise with every broadcast minute.

It is certainly alarming that there appears to be many people in the world -- more precisely in the Muslim world -- prepared to join forces with the bearded one simply because his softly spoken message seems somehow "neat."

Any corporation that opts to send this nature of video, be it the Arab broadcaster al-Jazeera or the CNN -- is first of all providing the criminals with a platform to serve their own self- promotion; second, it connives with them to multiply terror and fear.

Furthermore, the latest theory in Washington cannot be discounted. It is that the videos are the vehicle for encrypted messages signaling fresh terror attacks.

Nevertheless, that is no reason to stop transmitting "unchecked" Bin Laden videos as the White House has proposed to U.S. TV stations. While the stations stand shoulder to shoulder with the nation and agree not to broadcast anything without the government's approval, it cannot be called censorship.

But it is a short-sighted self-imposed restriction because the terror chief is quite able to deliver orders for more attacks through other channels too. And the fears produced by Bin Laden's videos can be better countered by a well-founded classification rather than through suppression.

Even the crudest messages contain information, in themselves and about their sender. So everyone should form themselves an image of what exactly Osama bin Laden and his people are about.

-- Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Germany