Ten years of the Charlie Hebdo attacks – Jérôme Sié, press cartoonist: “It’s one of the days I cried the most in my life”

You are a satirical press cartoonist and you also draw for the children’s press. How is this big gap organized in your way of working?

On the one hand, I work for the satirical press in general. Particularly for Siné Monthly. And for the youth press, I collaborate with Okapi, Phosphorus or even GEO Ado to name just a few. It’s a big gap that I like. I like to decipher and analyze the world, explaining current events, this extremely flammable matter in very different ways. When I draw for children, I don’t use at all the same drawing and the same humor as for an adult audience. I have to adapt my humor to be understandable. Put myself on their level, speak their language, without glossing over serious issues.

On January 7, 2015, several of your colleagues from Charlie Hebdo died under the bullets of the terrorists. Ten years later, what memories do you have of this terrible day?

I remember exactly what I was doing. We all remember it, I think. I was at home and I felt an emergency. I had to go to my office straight away. On the way, I received a text from a journalist friend telling me that she was terribly sad for me. I immediately went online and learned the news. It was one of the days I cried the most in my life. Like everyone else, I didn’t understand how we could attack artists, these men and women for drawings. And then, I knew Tignous quite well who regularly came to Tarn, the region where I live.

Press cartoons are more present in museums and bookstores than in the press.

Ten years after the killing, what remains of the Charlie spirit in France?

I don’t know. I have the impression that we have gone from a “black-white-beur” France to a society that has become tense and right-wing. The huge demonstrations of January 7 showed a united France, mobilized for its freedoms. Today, far-right ideas are gaining ground. It’s sad and dangerous in my opinion. So, I don’t really know what’s left of Charlie’s mind.

Also read:
Ten years of the Charlie Hebdo attacks: previously unpublished press cartoons are on display at the Pyrénées-Orientales departmental council to “remind the fundamental importance of freedom of expression”

You say that the profession of press cartoonist needs to be “saved”. For what reasons?

Ten years after these events, the profession is even more precarious than before. Press cartoons are more present in museums and bookstores than in the press. Many newspapers have no or no longer any satirical cartoonists. It’s a profession that is very fragile. And when you do this job, you can be subject to a lot of pressure.

I don’t allow myself to laugh and make jokes about everything.

When you talk about being pressured, you think in particular of censorship…

During my career, I learned what censorship was, for example. For economic and political reasons, so as not to alienate certain readers, certain advertisers… The media do not want to have problems. Freedom of expression therefore has its limits. Or at least, we give it to him. This is one of the primary reasons for the disappearance of press cartoons. Even though they are more necessary than ever. It’s a way of bringing an offbeat look, often in a humorous way, to dramatic situations.

Also read:
Ten years of the Charlie Hebdo attacks: “We capsized in something astonishing and uncertain”, story of a dark day from the Élysée alongside President François Hollande

In your opinion, can we laugh at everything while drawing?

Personally, my choice is not to always make people laugh. Sometimes, on very serious subjects, I don’t have that Charlie spirit. I don’t allow myself to laugh and make jokes about everything. The situation in Gaza for example, which for me is the biggest scandal of the 21st^e century, I can’t make people laugh with this subject. It’s impossible.