REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - A US official reiterated the the government did not support the content of the controversial film, Innocence of Muslims. Deputy Assistant Secretary from the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Dan Baer, said that on Thursday in the State Department’s online interactive video platform to discuss freedom of expression with international media, including Republika.

"I repeated the statements that we’ve made numerous times now, which is that the content of that film is not something that the US Government had anything to do with or that we support in any way," he said. "We reject that, the content of that film, as we reject any kind of film or other speech that would seem to be encouraging people to take hateful attitudes."

Yet, Baer emphasized that there were protections in international law and in domestic US law for freedom of expression. "There are some limitations.  They are very, very, very limited limitations.  And so the response to the film has been both to make clear that we do not in any way support the content or have any connection with it, as well as to reaffirm our commitment to freedom of expression," he said.

Baer also said that the content of the movie had offended the US government as well as many Americans. "Of course, there are millions of Muslim Americans who – in our country, but also people of other faiths have made clear that they deplore the content of the video.  So the response in this country has been quite, quite strong in terms of deploring the content of that video," he stressed.

Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor is under the US State Department, the official site says. Baer, a Colorado native, holds doctoral and masters degrees in international relations from the University of Oxford, where he was a Marshall Scholar. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University in social studies and African American studies.

Ikuti Whatsapp Channel Republika