(Photo: Creative Commons)

Elham Asaad Buaras

Jyllands-Posten Editor, Flemming Rose, who was behind the controversial 2005 publication of Prophet Muhammad cartoons, is being honoured by a Norwegian free speech group.

Danish newspaper Editor will receive roughly £80,000 from the free speech group Fritt Ord for his “steadfast defence of free speech” over the past decade.

Announcing the award on August 31, Fritt Ord noted that Rose has consistently pushed forward the notion of free speech as a basic human right.

“On September 30, 2005, Jyllands-Posten published a page with 12 different cartoons, each of them caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. That was the start of one of the most important debates over freedom of expression in modern times. Ten years later, it is still not finished,” the group wrote.

Rose currently serves as Jyllands-Posten’s foreign editor but was the culture editor who commissioned the Muhammad cartoons. He was very vocal in the aftermath of January’s Charlie Hebdo attacks and has a frequent presence in the international media speaking about threats against the freedom of speech.