France honored this Tuesday the victims of the deadly attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo 10 years ago, which began a series of attacks by Islamic militants in the country and fueled a debate about press freedom that still persists.
Two armed men, masked and linked to Al Qaeda, with assault rifles, invaded the offices of Charlie Hebdo and killed 12 people. The attackers wanted revenge in the name of the Prophet Muhammad, nearly a decade after the atheist and often provocative weekly published cartoons mocking the Prophet.
The murders generated a wave of national sympathy expressed in the slogan “Je Suis Charlie” (I am Charlie) and provoked a passionate debate about freedom of speech and religion in secular France.
“There were scenes that I will never forget,” former French president François Hollande told Reuters. “We had to act and we did so responsibly, aware that we were not finished yet and that there would be other tragedies. And there was.”
Current President Emmanuel Macron and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo will lead the celebrations, which include a wreath-laying ceremony and a minute of silence at three locations in the capital.
Al Qaeda’s Yemen branch placed then-Charlie Hebdo editor Stephane Charbonnier on its “wanted list” after the magazine first published images of the Prophet Muhammad in 2006.
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Two attackers born and raised in France stormed the offices of Charlie Hebdo on January 7, 2015, firing shots. They killed eight members of the editorial team, including Charbonnier, and four other people before being shot dead by police.
Over the next two days, another French-born man killed a policewoman and four Jewish hostages in a kosher supermarket in a Paris suburb. He was also shot dead by police.
More than 250 people have been killed in France as a result of violence by radical Islamic militants since then, revealing the struggle the country has faced in combating the threat posed by the militants.
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FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
The anniversary provoked renewed reflection in France on press freedom. Hollande expressed concern that there was growing self-censorship stemming from fear.
“Should we publish drawings, project certain images or compile reports when we know they could hurt personalities or communities? There is a form of self-censorship that has taken root,” he said.
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Charlie Hebdo published a special edition to mark the anniversary, depicting a man sitting on the butt of a gun in front of the word “Indestructible!” on your cover.
“Today, Charlie Hebdo’s values — such as humor, satire, freedom of expression, ecology, secularism, feminism, to name a few — have never been more threatened,” he said in an editorial.
Charlie Hebdo’s taboo-free journalism divides France. For Muslims, any depiction of the Prophet Muhammad is blasphemy.
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Critics of Charlie Hebdo accuse it of crossing the line and falling into Islamophobia by repeatedly publishing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. The magazine denies this and says it satirizes all religions, including Christianity.
