Flemming Rose
Flemming Rose (born 11 March 1958) is a Danish journalist and author who is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. He is best known for his role at Jyllands-Posten, where he helped publish a set of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2005. The publication sparked a worldwide debate about freedom of expression and the limits of religious tolerance. Since then, Rose has been a vocal defender of free speech.
Rose grew up in Copenhagen as one of three children. His father left the family when Rose was young, and they did not speak for many years, until they reconciled after a letter from his father during the cartoon crisis. He studied Russian language and literature at the University of Copenhagen.
His journalism career took him overseas. From 1980 to 1996 he was the Moscow correspondent for Berlingske Tidende, and then he spent 1996 to 1999 as the newspaper’s Washington, D.C. correspondent. In 1999 he became the Moscow correspondent for Jyllands-Posten, and in 2004 he was named the paper’s cultural editor. Since 2010 he served as the paper’s foreign affairs editor. He left Jyllands-Posten in November 2015.
The 2005 cartoons were the result of Rose’s belief that many European artists were self-censoring out of fear of violent backlash. The invitation to depict Muhammad “as you see him” led to several drawings, some of which did not feature Muhammad at all, while others mocked different targets. The most famous cartoon showed Muhammad with a bomb in his Turban.
In early 2006 Rose published an essay in the Washington Post titled “Why I Published Those Cartoons.” He argued that insults to religion are not a reason to block free speech, and he criticized the idea that Muslims deserve special protection from public critique. He stressed that defending free speech means defending equal treatment for all beliefs and that a free press should not bow to threats. He also linked the fight for free speech to broader democratic values learned during his time reporting in the Soviet era.
After the crisis, Rose traveled in the United States for interviews with political thinkers, and these conversations appeared in his book Amerikanske stemmer (American Voices). He continued to write about the cartoons and the debate they sparked, arguing that the episode raised awareness of self-censorship rather than simply increasing it.
In 2008, in response to threats against Kurt Westergaard, 17 Danish newspapers reprinted the Muhammad cartoon. Rose wrote in the Wall Street Journal that free speech can be offensive but is essential. He has described freedom of expression as a universal value, not merely a Western one.
In 2011 his collection Tavshedens Tyranni (Tyranny of Silence) was published in Denmark, presenting essays about free speech and its limits. A Norwegian publisher called the book a strong defense that in a liberal democracy no one can demand special treatment in public debate.
Rose has faced threats and controversy. In 2013 he was named on a hit list in the Al-Qaeda magazine Inspire. In 2016 he was invited to speak at the TB Davie Memorial Lecture on academic freedom at the University of Cape Town, but the invitation was withdrawn over security concerns.
Besides his journalism, Rose has translated several Russian books into Danish, including works by Viktor Astafyev, Anatoly Rybakov, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Boris Yeltsin. He remains a prominent voice in debates about free speech, religious sensitivity, and the rights of individuals to speak and question ideas in a democratic society.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 03:23 (CET).