“What happened in Paris today is a devastating shock for France, and for the freedom of the Press.”
These words are from French journalist Catherine Mondoy, former LeMonde newspaper reporter, in Thursday’s British newspaper Independent, following Tuesday’s Paris terrorist attack on the people of the newspaper Charlie Hebdo. “Just as 9/11 was an attack on symbols of American economic might, the slaughter at the offices of Charlie Hebdo undermines the country that has long since embodied the ideal of human rights. Charlie Hebdo’s staff has been threatened over the years as a result of its famously provocative caricature of the Prophet Mohammad in 2005 … but nobody expected that words would be translated into deeds.”
“Je Suis Charlie,” people everywhere are saying. We join in that expression of sympathy for our brother journalists in Paris. Routinely Charlie Hebdo is being tagged “the satiric newspaper,” as if the distinction is somehow relevant within the context of a brutal tragedy. Charlie Hebdo was a newspaper, and its employees paid the ultimate price for the principle of free expression.
Beyond that, we will let the community of journalists most affected, the cartoonists, say what needs to be said. Clockwise, from top: Michael Ramirez, Tom Stiglich, Gary Markstein and John Dering.
Commented