09/02/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday in Brussels, Franco Frattini, vice president of the European Commission and Commissioner for Justice and Internal Affairs, met Mohamed Ahmed Sherif from the World Islamic Call Society”, with whom he discussed the crisis provoked by the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed in the European press (EUROPE 9127). In a press release, Frattini pointed out that since September 2005, he has been in contact with representatives from the media with whom he had been discussing, even before this crisis blew up, issues linked to freedom of the press and he had, in this context, offered to facilitate dialogue between the media and religious leaders. In a reaction to an article in the Daily Telegraph on 9 February, Mr Frattini was keen to point out that, “I have never suggested imposing a code of conduct on the press, it is up to the media themselves to self-regulate to…formulate such a voluntary code of conduct if it is found necessary, appropriate and useful…There have never been plans…by the European Commission to have some sort of EU regulation, nor is there any legal basis for doing so”.