the essential
By publishing these three words to his 400 subscribers on Twitter on January 7, 2025, shortly after the tragedy, Joachim Roncin did not expect what would ensue. 10 years later, he returns to the “crazy story” of the slogan “Je suis Charlie”.
10 years. Day for day. On January 7, 12 people were killed in terrorist attacks carried out by the Kouachi brothers. The attack notably targeted the editorial staff of Charlie Hebdo, eight members of which were murdered: the cartoonists Cabu, Charb, Honoré, Tignous and Wolinski, the psychoanalyst Elsa Cayat, the economist Bernard Maris and the proofreader Mustapha Ourrad. Charlie had been the target of jihadist threats since the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in 2006.
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The attacks caused worldwide emotion and gave rise to a slogan of support: “Je suis Charlie”. 10 years later, the author of these three words which have become historic spoke in the columns of France 3 Paris Ile-de-France. Joachim Roncin, then magazine director, still remembers the moment, when less than an hour after the tragedy, he published for his 400 subscribers on Twitter the sentence in white letters on a black background.
The message quickly went viral. The graphic designer is caught in an unexpected media whirlwind and contacted by media from around the world. Just 24 hours after the attacks, 3.4 million messages were shared on Twitter with the keyword #JeSuisCharlie. The slogan is displayed everywhere, on the front pages of press titles, tagged on walls but also “in the window of a pastry shop”, “cupcakes, topped with a 'Je suis Charlie' in marzipan also displayed their solidarity”, remembers Joachim Roncin.
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A regretted recovery
AFP – JULIEN DE ROSA
On January 11, demonstrations brought together nearly four million people across France, with many heads of state and government present in Paris. “When I see people on Place de la République with these 'Je suis Charlie' signs, it's already amazing for me, I find it personally touching, but I'm not proud of it. It would be too horrible to have pride with such an event”, confides Joachim Roncin.
For the graphic designer, these three words were above all an “extremely personal” message, reminding him of a childhood during which his father had “on the coffee table in his living room” this “slightly anti-establishment” magazine. Faced with the fear of commercial recovery, Joachim Roncin protected the phrase and the visual “Je suis Charlie” ensuring that the slogan was “non-depositable”. Its author nevertheless regrets the political exploitation that it may have generated, even though the initial idea of the message was to defend “living together”, “fraternity” and “freedom of expression”. “I think there are other people who use it differently today to perhaps promote ideas that are too far from the original ideas,” he laments. “For example, it was used for xenophobic and racist ideas which are not mine at all. This is also why recently, for the first time, I filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor against the National rally during the European elections They used this slogan again,” he says.
Since then, Joachim Roncin has published a book retracing the epic story of the slogan: A crazy story: How I created “Je suis Charlie” and the journey into Absurdy that followed (Grasset). He also got involved with Reporters Without Borders to defend press freedom but also because he “needed to find meaning” in his life. Today he hopes that his message will continue to convey the values he initially defended.
