CHARLIE Hebdo will be published next Wednesday, despite yesterday’s murders of eight of its journalists, along with two police officers and two guests of the magazine, during an editorial meeting at its offices in Paris, it has been reported.
Columnist Patrick Pelloux told AFP: “It’s very hard. We are all suffering, with grief, with fear, but we will do it anyway because stupidity will not win.”
He said that the issue would have to be put together elsewhere, as the satirical weekly’s offices were not accessible.
One million copies of next week’s magazine will be published, reports say, as opposed to the usual print run of 60,000.
Mr Pelloux was speaking as an outpouring of support for the victims swept France and the world. Last night, hundreds of thousands of people gathered at rallies and vigils across the country and the world - and this afternoon a spontaneous demonstration by students in protest against the attack is taking place in Paris.
Speaking at the rally in the capital’s Place de la Republique last night, the city’s deputy mayor Patrick Klugman said: "Parisians will not be afraid. We will fight terrorism with our common values: freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of the press."
Satirical publications across the world vowed to continue pushing comic boundaries, despite the attack. Even so, Ian Hislop, editor of Private Eye, said in a statement: “I am appalled and shocked by this horrific attack - a murderous attack on free speech in the heart of Europe.
“I offer my condolences to the families and friends of those killed - the cartoonists, journalists and those who were trying to protect them.
“They paid a very high price for exercising their comic liberty. Very little seems funny today.”
Meanwhile, the editor of satirical German magazine Titanic, Tim Wolff, said: “If people want to shoot satirists - or shoot laughter itself - then one simply has to respond by making jokes.”
Today, the victims' names have been splashed across newspapers as heroes for freedom of expression. Even government websites, such as Pole Emploi and Caisse Allocation Familial (CAF) demonstrated support for the victims.
Meanwhile, cartoonists worldwide have drawn their own defiance.
Radio France group, Le Monde and France Televisions have joined forces to offer the services of any personnel as well as to supply any material that Charlie Hebdo may need in order to survive. In a press release, they invited other media organisations in France to unite behind the magazine and help “safeguard the principles of independence and freedom of thought and expression, guarantors of our democracy”.
And €500,000 has been offered to the publication by the Press and Pluralism and Google-backed Digital Innovation of the Press funds.
A minute’s silence was held across France in memory of the victims of the attack at 12noon today. In Paris’s Île de la Cité, people fell silent as the bells of Notre Dame mournfully rang out. Many held aloft pens as a symbol of freedom of expression. Spontaneous applause broke out as the period of reflection ended.
Journalists and staff at Agence France Presse held “Je Suis Charlie” placards as they stood silently in the Paris rain outside their offices on theday of national mourning.
Meanwhile, music stations played John Lennon’s Imagine.
Many Muslims expressed their outrage at the attack. One twitter user posted the message: “I am offended by those images created by #CharlieHebdo. But I am a million times more offended by the killing of innocent lives.”
And someone with the Twitter handle Coco tweeted: “As someone raised Muslim, senseless bloodshed in my name is far more offensive to me than any cartoon can ever be.”
The French Council of the Muslim Faith has called on Muslims across the country to take in part in planned weekend demonstrations protesting against the Charlie Hebdo attack.
Former President Nicolas Sarkozy called on "civilized people”, regardless of faith, to unite "against barbarism".
Front National president Marine Le Pen, however, blamed radical Islam for the attack and called for an “absolute refusal of Islamic fundamentalism”.
She said: “We must not stay silent. We must say what happened. We must not be scared of words: this is a terrorist act committed in the name of radical Islamism. Denial and hypocrisy are no longer an option.”
Free speech advocates urged media organisations to publish cartoon covers of Charlie Hebdo as a gesture of solidarity. Some German publications, including BZ whose front cover today is a montage of 43 Hebdo covers, have already done so.
Jodie Ginsberg, chief executive officer of Index on Censorship, said: “The ability to express ourselves freely is fundamental to a free society. This includes the freedom to publish, to satirise, to joke, to criticise, even when that might cause offence to others.
“Those who wish to silence free speech must never be allowed to prevail.”
Photo: Valentina Calà
