Fourteen civilians, three policemen and three terrorists killed : that is the results of three days of violence in the Paris region that ended last Friday 9th January 2015 with two assaults of the special police force.
Shortly before 17:00 on Friday, the elite units of the police killed Sharif Said and Kouachi, perpetrators of the attack against Charlie Hebdo Wednesday that left 12 dead. In the same time, an assault was given against a Jewish supermarket in eastern Paris, where Amedy Coulibaly, a delinquent offender, had taken since mid-day several people hostage. After several explosions, police entered the store. The attacker, was killed during the assault. Two policemen were also injured when they released the hostages, the total number of 15 to 20, according to police.

The biggest shock came without doubt from the massacre during the Charlie Hebdo weekly meeting on Wednesday 7th January. According to witnesses the two men said they were acting for Al-Quaida, claiming after that they wanted to avenge the prophet for Charlie Hebdo’s satire of him.

Charlie Hebdo, a satirical, unconventional and irreverent newspaper

Charlie Hebdo is a satirical weekly magazine (the 44-year-old newspaper had been sliding towards bankruptcy before the attack against it. It used to typically sell only half of the 60,000 copies it printed weekly) in France. The newspaper is well known for its broad humour sometimes provocative and irreverent, many cartoons, with some preference with mocking police, authorities and religions.

Controversy arose over the publication's edition of 9 February 2006. Under the title "Mahomet débordé par les intégristes" ("Muhammad overwhelmed by fundamentalists"), the front page showed a cartoon of a weeping Muhammad saying "C'est dur d'être aimé par des cons" ("it's hard being loved by jerks"). The cartoon was made by Cabu. Inside, the Charlie Hebdo published the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten's cartoon depicting the prophet Mohamed that had triggered violent riots in some Muslim countries. The staff started receiving death threats following that date.

In the early hours of 2 November 2011, the newspaper's office in Paris was fire-bombed and its website hacked. The attacks were presumed to be linked to its decision to edit a special edition with the cover, featuring a cartoon of Muhammad ("100 coups de fouets si vous n'êtes pas morts de rire" translating by "100 lashes if you don't die of laughter!") made by Luz, had circulated on social media for a couple of days.

Editor Stephane Charbonnier (Charb) was pictured in Al-Qaeda magazine Inspire on a list of nine men Al Qaeda was targetting.

Eventually on Wednesday 7th January 2015, two men entered the office of the newspaper and killed 12 people, including five of France’s top cartoonists Charb, Cabu, Honoré, Tignous and Wolinski, economist Bernard Maris and two police officers, and wounding eleven, four of them seriously.

Je suis Charlie

With the attacks, the magazine has become a national symbol of free speech. Huge crowds, including 1.5 million in Paris (more than 4 millions across the country) in the biggest rally in French history for the past 50 years (and certainly since the freedom of Paris in 1944), took to the streets Sunday, many carrying signs saying: "Je suis Charlie". The French words for "I am Charlie", were adopted by supporters of free speech and freedom of expression who were reacting to the shootings.

The day after the attack, the remaining staff of Charlie Hebdo announced that publication would continue, and the surviving Charlie Hebdo staff have since Friday been working out of the offices of another French newspaper, Liberation, with equipment loaned by other media organisations.

The surviving employees of Charlie Hebdo have sworn to uphold its tradition of lampooning all religions, politicians, celebrities and news events. Islamic extremists have often been ridiculed in its pages through provocative and irreverent cartoons.

The cover of the first edition of the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo since its staff were murderously attacked by Islamist gunmen last week shows a cartoon of the prophet shedding a tear and holding up a sign reading “Je suis Charlie” in sympathy with the dead journalists (the cover cartoon was drawn by the weekly’s cartoonist Luz, who survived the massacre because he was late arriving at the office). The headline says “All is forgiven”.

On 13 January 2015 the news came that the first issue after the massacre will come out in three million copies and will be made available in 25 countries, translated into 16 languages because of international demand. However yesterday it was announced that due to a huge demand, the print run would be raised from three to five million copies.

The fact is that everything was sold out within minutes and all newsagents in France will receive more newspapers tomorrow and the following days too.

Most of the press in the world chose not to show the cartoons

But the magazine's fresh caricature of Mohammed could renew fury by some extremely devout Muslims who believe it is forbidden to depict their prophet in any way.

Newspapers around Europe, including Libération, Le Monde and Frankfurter Allgemeine, have used the new cover image online. The BBC showed it briefly during a newspaper review on Newsnight.

In the US, the Washington Post, USA Today, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, The Daily Beast and CBS News ran the cover. The Washington Post had republished the 2011 newspaper front cover, but in its pages Reviews, alongside an editorial warning against the temptation of self-censorship. Tuesday 13, on the eve of the release of the new issue of Charlie Hebdo, the daily published the cover designed by Luz at the bottom of the first page of the Style supplement. Since its release on Monday that drawing was reproduced on the blog Comic Riffs of the daily newspaper devoted to Michael Cavna newspaper cartoon.

On the other hand, other media decided to make the opposite choice. The New York Times has engaged in a delicate exercise in its edition of Tuesday, January 13: to describe the front page of Charlie Hebdo devoted to a caricature of the Prophet without showing it. A strict application of the rule referred after the killings of Paris by the director of the newspaper, Dean Baquet, which prohibits the publication of anything that "is intended deliberately to offend the religious sensibilities." However, following the mount of criticism, the US newspaper's mediator, Margaret Sullivan, regretted yesterday morning that her newspaper did not consider it necessary to review its internal policy, saying the "new cover image of Charlie Hebdo is an important part of a story that has gripped the world’s attention over the past week.The cartoon itself, while it may disturb the sensibilities of a small percentage of Times readers, is neither shocking nor gratuitously offensive. And it has, undoubtedly, significant news value.With Charlie Hebdo’s expanded press run of millions of copies for this post-attack edition, and a great deal of global coverage, the image is being seen, judged and commented on all over the world. Times readers should not have had to go elsewhere to find it. "

The news agency Associated Press and CNN news channels, MSNBC and NBC News, to name only the most prestigious, have done the same and decided to hide the controversial cartoons.

The head of CNN Worldwide, Jeff Zucker, argued another argument with his teams, according to the American press: "From a journalistic point of view, we feel that we want and that we should use these images. But from my point of view responsible for the security of our teams around the world is more important for now."

In Canada, the cartoonist of the Journal de Montréal, Marc Beaudet, encouraged everyone to draw their own Mohammed, by following dotted numbers, in its edition of 13 January.

In Australia, the ABC showed the image of the cartoon on its 24-hour rolling news programme but with a warning to viewers.

In the United Kingdom, The Telegraph blurred out one of the depictions of Muhammad, which appeared on the cover of Charlie Hebdo. The Guardian is running this cover as its news value warrants publication, but with a warning saying: "this article contains the image of the magazine cover, which some may find offensive". The Independent is also very careful not to show the full page, covering it with other papers on photos. On Thursday, Skynews interrupted abruptly an interview of Caroline Fourrest in France after she started to show the front page of Charlie Hebdo during the discussion; Dharshini David , the anchor of the TV programme, saying "I do apology for any of our viewers who may have been offended".

The Turkish opposition paper, Cumhuriyet ("The Republic"), is for now the only newspaper to have dared this publication in a Muslim country with a four-page insert in Turkish taking most of the new issue of Charlie Hebdo and reproducing its front-cover.

In the night, the police raided the printing of the newspaper in Istanbul, to control visually packets ready for sending. The distribution was made possible after passing normally. The controversial cartoon appeared, however, in small format on page 5, alongside an editorial condemning terrorism outside the notebook dedicated to Charlie Hebdo. She was also on page 12, again in small format. They appear to have escaped the vigilance of the police, obsessed with the front page and the special addition.

On twitter, the new Charlie Hebdo front cover flowded the social network. Some people strongly criticizing what they called "coward" reactions of some news media and reminding that publishing the picture does not mean that one agree with it, but that is information, the same way as publishing a massacre or some jihadist video does not mean you agree with them. Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, told the UK Today programme that Charlie Hebdo had no choice but to print the cover it had.“You cannot have a march through the streets of Paris attended by 46 world leaders, 4 million people, climaxing with a shout of ‘We are not afraid’ and then not print the central object of contention,” he said. “Of course they are right to do that and I am afraid it is absolutely vital now that everybody stands up and defends their right to publish. You may not agree with what they have done, you may be offended by what they have done, but you should defend their right to publish it.”

------------

On Wednesday, a thousand people spontaneously gathered in New York, Union Square, French and mixed Americans, and again on Saturday, nearly 2000 French gathered around the arch in Washington Square, waving pens and slogans "Je suis Charlie". Similar things happened in London (Trafalgar Square) and other countries around the world.

And you, what do you think of all of that? Did you attend some rally in your country ?

If you which to attend, or are organising any rally or demo feel free to publish details on the appropriate forums (for the different countries/cities).

Official site: http://www.charliehebdo.fr/

 

Like you I was disappointed that nobody answered and welcome any reaction.

Of course discussion is free (assuming that it folows the forum rules, especially no insult and of course no malicious rumour and false testimony...
What makes you believe that there might be some sort of strong censure on EasyExpat.com?