I/III. http://www.ndtv.com/article/blog/why-charlie-hebdo-is-important-to-france-645633
Why Charlie Hebdo is Important to France Helene Ferrarini (Helene Ferrarini is a French freelance journalist. Her pieces are regularly published in the French media, like Liberation or Slate.fr. She studied journalism in the Mass Communication Center of the Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi. Based in France, she visits India regularly.) Every Wednesday, the newspaper kiosks in the French streets are full of the satirical covers of Charlie Hebdo. Using cartoons as illustrations, Charlie's sketches could be seen as crude, provocative or terribly funny. While the magazine may not be read by all French citizens, its strong satirical bent of work has ensured everyone knows Charlie Hebdo. Mocking almost everything and everyone from religion to politicians, from businessmen to the French middle class, Charlie Hebdo would delight the readers with its dry humour, a trend that takes its roots in French history. During the monarchy, satirical cartoons of the king or the priests would be circulated discretely among readers. The XIXth century-French cartoonist Daumier, mocking the French King Louis-Philippe, was in a way the ancestor of Cabu and Wolinski, killed today among other cartoonists at the Paris office. Launched in 1969, Charlie Hebdo was born in the aftermath of the events of May 1968 when civil unrest was brewing all over French society. Of libertarian trend, Charlie Hebdo encountered rapidly troubles with powers of all kind. In 1970, the State censorship tried to forbid the newspaper after a cover mocked the death of former French President Charles de Gaulle. The right to be rude, the right to be crude, the right to be pornographic at times... are at the core of Charlie's fight for freedom of speech. Its cartoonists and writers strongly believe that one should be able to laugh at everything, from genocide to fundamentalism. Black humour and raucous laughter were the beliefs Charlie's members subscribed to. Never one for subtleties, it always tried to jolt the reader into realisations, which for me worked very well. To keep its belief in freedom of speech intact, the pages of Charlie Hebdo are free of advertisements. In the 2000s, the magazine enjoyed a weekly circulation of over 1 and a half lakh (considered good for France) but the recent years had seen a drop in its circulation to about 50,000 per week. Charlie made a mark for itself with several covers on religions considered outrageous. In 2006, they published the cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten which had created a furore in the Muslim world. In 2011, in a special edition renamed Charia-Hebdo, Prophet Muhammed was drafted on the cover page of Charlie. A criminal fire destroyed the offices of the newspaper just before the release of this controversial edition. Since then, the journalists of Charlie had been under the protection of the police. While religion formed a large part of its work, it was not the only target. Charlie's columnists and cartoonists would train their guns on all kinds of power structures and conservatives. With its political incorrectness, Charlie Hebdo carved its own unique space in the French press and gave a new way to mock our society. The bloody attack on Charlie is an assault not just on the magazine or its journalists but on what they stood for : freedom of speech. It has struck at the very heart of the journalistic ideals, the French press stands for. Je Suis Charlie. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this blog are the personal opinions of the author. NDTV is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, suitability, or validity of any information on this blog. All information is provided on an as-is basis. The information, facts or opinions appearing on the blog do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same. Story First Published: January 07, 2015 23:53 IST II/III. https://news.vice.com/article/the-anti-religion-and-anti-establishment-history-of-charlie-hebdo am Moments before gunmen ambushed the Paris office of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday, in an attack that left 12 dead, the magazine had published its 2015 New Year's card on social media -- a cartoon of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, with the caption "Best wishes, and most of all, good health." This week's issue of the magazine features a cover with controversial French novelist Michel Houellebecq, whose latest novel Submission -- a fictional portrait of a Muslim-run France -- hits shelves today. Critics of Houellebecq have accused him of playing into the hands of far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen, herself no stranger to the caustic limelight of Charlie Hebdo's front cover. Past editions of the magazine have shown the FN leader shaving her pubic hair, making out with her father, former FN leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, or grinning demonically in front of the bodies of dead migrants. Charlie Hebdo has never paid much attention to sacred cows, and has lampooned everyone from the pope to presidents in its polemical caricatures and irreverent editorials. Speaking to VICE News on Wednesday, Peter Gumbel, author and global fellow at The Wilson Center's Global Europe Program, described Charlie Hebdo as "a magazine that provokes deliberately," and called the attack "a carefully premeditated attempt to destroy the magazine and kill all the cartoonists." "They picked the day when there was an editorial meeting when all the staff would be there," said Gumbel, "they knew who they wanted, they asked names of people before they killed them, it was premeditated murder." Tom Bishop, director of the Center for French Civilization and Culture, and a professor of French at NYU, explained that Charlie Hebdo "holds a very particular place in French culture because of the country's tradition of satiric magazines." "They're not at all party-aligned," Bishop told VICE News. "They tend to be viewed as holding nothing sacred. That's their attraction." 'Charlie Hebdo' Shooting Rampage Is Fourth Attack In Three Weeks to Raise Terror Concerns In France. Read more here. Famous for its unsparing, sardonic -- and often obscene take on the news, politicians, and religion, Charlie Hebdo was pretty much born out of controversy, after its former incarnation, Hara-Kiri (subtitled "Stupid and vicious newspaper") was banned by the government in 1970 over an insulting headline about the death of former French president and military hero Charles de Gaulle. The new publication, which was baptized Charlie Hebdo (Charlie Weekly) in homage to Charlie Brown, soon made a name for itself as an anti-religious, anti-clerical, and anti-establishment voice in the French media landscape. Despite a limited circulation, the leftist and staunchly secular magazine was well known across France, and together with satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné came to form the backbone of French political and religious satire. In an interview published in 2000 by French daily Libération, Charlie Hebdo illustrator Georges Wolinski -- who died in Wednesday's attack at 80 -- explained how Charles Schulz's Peanuts had come to inspire the publication. "Schulz' death made me think," he told the reporter. "Ultimately, Peanuts shows that living and existing are two different things. The mediocrity of our existence is unbearable. That's what Peanuts is about. It would be a good thing to revive that kind of existential comic." Reviled by some and much loved by others, the magazine has as long history of being championed and condemned by politicians and intellectuals alike, and has established itself as an incendiary French institution. A letter from a reader in the fourth issue signed by famed French writer and film director Marguerite Duras asked the editors, "Where did Charlie Brown get his sweater from?" Embroiled in countless legal and opinion scandals over the years -- mainly over its publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed -- the name Charlie Hebdo came to be associated, in France, with freedom of speech, and even more so, the freedom to provoke. The Great Mosque of Paris sued the magazine and the Union of Islamic Organizations of France after in 2006 it reprinted notorious cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that had originally appeared in Danish daily Jyllands-Posten. That issue featured a cover drawn by Cabu -- who also died in today's attack -- depicting the prophet "overwhelmed by fundamentalists." Through his tears, the prophet says, "It's tough, being loved by idiots." The case against Charlie Hebdo was eventually dismissed the following year, with the courts ruling that, "In a secular and pluralistic society, the respect of all faiths goes hand in hand with the freedom to criticize all religions." In 2011, the magazine published another cartoon of the prophet on its front cover in a special "Charia Hebdo" edition -- a play on the word in French for sharia law -- which was "guest-edited" by the prophet Mohammed. The caption over the drawing read: "100 lashes if you don't die laughing." The day after the issue hit newsstands, Charlie Hebdo's offices were fire bombed and the magazine's website was hacked. The magazine hit back with a characteristically insolent special "Fire at Charlie's" edition, whose cover depicted a Muslim man and a white cartoonist passionately making out. The caption: "Love is stronger than hate." In 2012, in the wake of violent attacks on US embassies in the Middle East following the YouTube release of the controversial anti-Islamic movie Innocence of Muslims, Charlie Hebdo waded into the controversy with more cartoons of the prophet -- this time in various stages of undress. French politicians, including Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, and then Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, accused the magazine of pouring oil on the fire of an already tense debate. The magazine's editors and its headquarters had been under police protection for some time following death threats after the "Charia Hebdo" edition. In a 2012 article from French daily Le Monde, re-published in the wake of the attack, Charlie Hebdo Editor Stéphane Charbonnier, known as Charb and killed in this morning's attack, had said, "I have no wife and kids, no car, no credit. What I'm about to say might seem pompous, but I'd rather die standing than live on my knees." In the same Le Monde article, Charb, who was included on al Qaeda's most wanted list in 2013, had expressed the desire to "continue until Islam became as trivialized as Catholicism." "These uproars always concern the same religion," he said at the time. "We're about to publish the 1058th issue of Charlie. There have only been three scandalous front pages, all of them involving Islam. We can show the pope fucking a mole and no one cares." Wednesday's attack touches a raw nerve in French society, Bishop told VICE News: "France views the slaying of the journalists as an attack on the freedom of the press and freedom of expression." "It really goes back a long, long way to the Enlightenment," he said. "Which was all about freedom of expression, when Voltaire was imprisoned in the Bastille for what he said, and Rousseau exiled himself to Geneva. [Charlie Hebdo's] cartoons are not about freedom of the press, their very existence is a sign of freedom of the press." Gumbel echoed Bishop's analysis, saying, "France is a place that takes freedom of speech incredibly seriously. People defend Charlie Hebdo's right to provoke them, that's been very striking. There's been nobody saying they should've soft-pedaled it or that they went too far." Stéphane Charbonnier, who succeeded Philippe Val as the managing editor of Charlie Hebdo in 2009, was a French journalist and illustrator. Throughout his career, he collaborated with numerous publications including l'Humanité, Fluide Glacial and l'Echo des Savanes. Known for his acerbic wit and impertinent cartoons, he had just published a tragically foreboding cartoon in his "Charb doesn't like people" column, titled "Still no terror attacks in France." Bishop expressed concern over the fallout of Wednesday's attack, and warned of a possible backlash against French Muslims. "This is going to turn out to be a dramatic moment in French life," he said. "France is going to go on the warpath now." Today, Le Monde published a map of planned gatherings and vigils to pay tribute to the journalists and police officers who died in the attack. Marches have been scheduled in dozens of French towns. VICE News' Colleen Curry contributed to this report. III. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SAAN_/message/1633 o o o sortirdunucleaire.org Dear Friends, What happened yesterday in France was shocking for everyone, but especially for antinuclear activists. The Reseau Sortir du Nucleaire immediately issued a press release. You'll find below a rough translation (basically << googled >>). Tribute to our friends at Charlie Hebdo January 7, 2015: The immense sadness of Reseau Sortir du Nucleaire Press Release - January 7, 2014 The sadness of the Sortir du Nucleaire Network is immense. Charlie Hebdo journalists have been at the forefront of the denunciation of the nuclear threat and have always been on the side of antinuclear activists since its creation in 1969, even well before with the magazine Hara Kiri, which marked its beginnings in 1960. Thousands of people became antinuclear activists after reading the articles in Hara-Kiri and then in Charlie Hebdo. Several cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo including Charb, chief editor, used their fame to help the anti-nuclear cause and published cartoons in many of our publications. A few years ago Cabu directly supported the mobilization in favour of the abolition of nuclear weapons . We wish a rapid recovery to Fabrice Nicolino, the author of an excellent booket : << L'escroquerie nucléaire >> (<< The nuclear delusion >>) Resistance to human stupidity in general and nuclear energy in particular has lost precious supporters. In shock, the << Sortir du Nucleaire >> network wishes to express its deep sorrow and its solidarity with the families of victims of this heinous attack against freedom of expression and democracy. o o o La tristesse du Réseau "Sortir du nucléaire" est immense Charlie Hebdo a été à la pointe de la dénonciation de la menace nucléaire et a toujours été au côté des antinucléaires depuis sa création en 1969 et bien avant encore avec avec le magazine Hara Kiri, qui a marqué ses prémices dès 1960. Des milliers de personnes sont devenues antinucléaires en lisant les articles dans Hara-Kiri puis dans Charlie Hebdo. Plusieurs des dessinateurs de Charlie Hebdo dont Charb, son directeur de publication, ont mis leur notoriété au service de la lutte antinucléaire notamment en publiant des dessins dans plusieurs de nos publications. Il y a quelques années, Cabu avait apporté son soutien à la mobilisation pour l'abolition des armes nucléaires. Nos pensées de prompt rétablissement vont à Fabrice Nicolino, auteur de l'excellent hors-série L'Escroquerie nucléaire. La résistance à la bêtise humaine en général et au nucléaire en particulier vient de perdre de précieux défenseurs. Sous le choc, le Réseau "Sortir du nucléaire" tient à faire part de son immense tristesse et à marquer sa solidarité avec les familles des victimes de cet odieux attentat perpétré contre la liberté d'expression et la démocratie. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
