THE CHANNEL
|
ISSUE 1 2015
|
23
CHARLIE
WEAREALL
aving wished
everyone a ‘Happy
New Year’, the
second week of
2015 brought a
rude awakening.
The events in
Paris on that cold January morning
– the barbaric killing of 12 people in
and around the Paris offices of the
satirical magazine
Charlie Hebdo
–
sent shockwaves around the world.
And the subsequent sieges in the
small town of Dammartin-en-Goële
and in the kosher grocery store in
the east of Paris brought home the
fragility of all human existence
when confronted by people with no
regard for human life.
Yet the subsequent outpouring
of support for those killed in Paris
and for freedom of expression in
general that was seen in the French
capital and around the world sent a
clear and unambiguous message:
‘We will not be cowed’.
Not everyone agrees with the
way in which
Charlie Hebdo
– and
other papers and magazines in
parts of Europe – have reflected the
religion of Islam. However, there
can be no possible excuse for the
murder of people simply for
picking up a pen and drawing a
cartoon. And in perpetrating these
inhuman acts, the terrorists have
bolstered awareness of the very
thing they were trying to suppress
– cartoons depicting the Prophet
Muhammed. Hundreds of millions
of people who had never heard of
Charlie Hebdo
now know of the
magazine while tens of millions of
those are likely to have seen the
cartoons published over the past
few years, as well as that on the
cover of the “survivors’ issue”
published the week after the attacks.
History is littered with examples
of people killed for expressing their
beliefs, whether through the
spoken word, through writing or
through art. Yet history also shows
us that in the end, the expression of
different ideas leads to changes in
perceptions and leads to the
advancement of mankind. Modern
democracy has come about thanks
to selfless actions of those who have
been suppressed and subjugated.
CONTRADICTIONS
Today we live in an interconnected
world where terrorists use the most
modern means of communication
to disseminate their beliefs and
ideology – including such medieval
acts as the beheadings of journalists
taken prisoner in the Middle East.
It seems that the aims of these
people – including those
responsible for the
Charlie Hebdo
massacre – are contradictory. They
want to muzzle freedom of
expression while at the same time
getting the world’s media to
provide them with the oxygen of
publicity. And it is chilling to note
that the militants in the Middle
East are becoming broadcasters,
with slickly-produced videos
distributed on social platforms.
Thankfully there was a clear and
unambiguous response to the Paris
killings from hundreds of millions
of people throughout the world:
you will not win. The clearest
manifestation was the “Je suis
Charlie” campaign. Facebook and
Twitter were alight with posts
declaring support for the murdered
Charlie Hebdo
staff.
The unity march and rally in
Paris on the Sunday following the
attacks brought more than 1.6m
people onto the streets of the
French capital – the largest march,
according to some reports, in
France’s history. Other marches
H
“
The
message
was clear -
we will not
be cowed
”
The events that unfolded in Paris in January 2015 shocked the
world. AIB chief executive Simon Spanswick believes that the
international media community must stand strong, and together
