In an exceptional 32-page issue, which will be released on January 7 to commemorate the massacre perpetrated in 2015, the satirical weekly says “ indestructible! ».It reaffirms its values which combine freedom of expression and humor.
« The desire to laugh will never disappear! »proclaims Charlie Hebdo ten years after the jihadist attack which decimated part of its editorial team, in a special issue to be published Tuesday January 7 focusing in particular on « laugh at God » through some 40 caricatures chosen from hundreds. In this exceptional edition that AFP was able to consult, the satirical newspaper says « indestructible! »with, in a front page drawing, a reader sitting on an assault rifle, reading, delighted, this Charlie « historical » 32 pages.
« Satire has a virtue that has helped us get through these tragic years: optimism. If we want to laugh, it’s because we want to live. Laughter, irony, caricature are manifestations of optimism. No matter what happens, whether dramatic or happy, the urge to laugh will never go away. »underlines Riss, its director, in the editorial which looks back on the last ten years marked, according to him, by a « geopolitical situation » who is « aggravated ». « Today, the values of Charlie Hebdo, such as humor, satire, freedom of expression, ecology, secularism, feminism to name but a few, have never been so questioned ». « Perhaps because it is democracy itself which finds itself threatened by renewed obscurantist forces »he explains.
On January 7, 2015, 12 people were killed in the attack on the weekly by the Kouachi brothers, French people who had pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda. Among them, eight members of the editorial staff: the designers Cabu, Charb, Honoré, Tignous and Wolinski, the psychoanalyst Elsa Cayat, the economist Bernard Maris and the proofreader Mustapha Ourrad. Charlie Hebdo was the target of jihadist threats since the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in 2006.
Concours « God laugh »
The newspaper, whose “anticlerical” line has never varied, launched an international competition at the end of 2024 among press cartoonists on the theme #Laughing at God, inviting them to “draw your anger against the influence of all religions on your freedoms”. Among 350 drawings received, nearly 40, « the most efficient and successful »are published in the anniversary issue.
Among them, one represents a Christ on the cross filming himself with a telephone with a subtitle warning that « the little bird is going to come out »another shows a mother and her child in a landscape of ruins saying to themselves that« one god it's okay, three hello the damage »a designer wonders if drawing « a guy drawing a guy drawing Mohammed, is that okay? ». Another sketch depicts a man wondering « how to caricature what does not exist? This competition is completely stupid ».
Freedom of expression, fundamental right »
The newspaper also publishes the results of an Ifop study for the Jean-Jaurès Foundation carried out in June 2024 indicating that 76% of French people believe that « freedom of expression is a fundamental right » and that « freedom of caricature is one of them ». 62% of respondents say they are in favor of « right to outrageously criticize a religious belief, symbol or dogma ». This survey was carried out by self-administered online questionnaire from May 31 to June 1 with a sample of 1,000 people, representative of the population aged 18 and over.
The attacks of January 7, 2015 caused global emotion and gave rise to a slogan of support: « I am Charlie ». On January 11, demonstrations brought together nearly four million people across France, with many heads of state and government in the Parisian procession.
Ten years later, the commemorations organized this Tuesday, January 7 will take place in the presence of the President of the Republic, several ministers and the mayor of Paris. They will start at 11:30 a.m. in the XIe district, where Charlie Hebdo had its premises in 2015. They will continue on Boulevard Richard Lenoir, where police officer Ahmed Merabet was shot dead. They will end at 1:10 p.m. with a tribute to the victims of the Hypercasher Porte de Vincennes store in Paris: four people of Jewish faith were killed there on January 9. Monday, the juvenile court judges the man who attacked two people with a chopper in September 2020 in front of the former premises of Charlie Hebdounaware that the newspaper had left the premises after the 2015 attack…
