The New York Times reported on the Charlie Hebdo terrorist incident. A provocative quote from the story reads:
“The French like their satire,” said Jean-Marie Charon, a sociologist who studies the news media. “The idea is to be irreverent, that irony and criticism are good things. But it is true that this is perhaps not part of everybody’s culture.”
Proud to Offend, Charlie Hebdo Carries Torch of Political Provocation
By Doreen Carvajal and Suzanne Daley
PARIS — In 2012, when Charlie Hebdo editors defied the government’s advice and published crude caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad naked and in sexual poses, the French authorities shut down embassies, cultural centers and schools in about 20 countries.
“Is it really sensible or intelligent to pour oil on the fire?” asked Laurent Fabius, the foreign minister at the time.
But Charlie Hebdo’s editor, Stéphane Charbonnier, who died in the attack on the paper’s offices Wednesday, was not deterred.
Week after week, the small, struggling paper amused and horrified, taking pride in offending one and all and carrying on a venerable European tradition dating to the days of the French Revolution, when satire was used to pillory Marie Antoinette, and later to challenge politicians, the police, bankers and religions of all kinds.
This week’s issue was no exception. It featured a mock debate about whether Jesus exists and a black-and-white New Year’s greeting card from the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, with the caption, “To your health.”
No subject was off limits. The paper offered pages of colorful cartoons depicting France’s top politicians and intellectuals as wine-swilling slackers indulging in sexual acts, or suggesting the pope was stepping aside to be with his girlfriend.
It is a brand of humor the French and other Europeans are attached to, but it has prompted fury among both Muslim extremists and less radical Muslims who see the denigration of their religion as provocation, not food for thought.
“The French like their satire,” said Jean-Marie Charon, a sociologist who studies the news media. “The idea is to be irreverent, that irony and criticism are good things. But it is true that this is perhaps not part of everybody’s culture.”
In recent years, the editors and cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo had weathered a firebombing, computer hacking and death threats. Mr. Charbonnier was included on a list published by Al Qaeda’s magazine, Inspire, of those “most wanted” for crimes against Islam. But Charlie Hebdo’s staff continued to take on Islam with the same irreverence as it did other religions, a stand that gave it stature among French journalists.
In 2006, for instance, the paper republished the controversial cartoon caricatures of a weeping Prophet Muhammad that had appeared first in a Danish newspaper.
“Charlie Hebdo has always kept its insolence, and since the caricatures crisis, it has become a symbol of press independence,” said Bruno Patino, director of the journalism school at the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris, known as Sciences Po. “The debate about caricatures overlapped others in France about freedom of speech and religion. It became the most visible.”
The newspaper was born in controversy in 1970, after a publication called Hara-Kiri was banned for mocking the death of former President Charles de Gaulle. That prompted its journalists to set up a new paper, Charlie Hebdo, named for its reprint of Charlie Brown cartoons from the United States and a French shorthand for weekly publication.
According to some reports in the French news media, the attackers knew the names of their victims. Among the dead were Mr. Charbonnier, editor since 2009, and the veteran artists Jean Cabut, 76, and Georges Wolinski, 80, who had been involved with the publication since its inception.
While the paper first drew the anger of Muslims by reprinting the Danish cartoons from the newspaper Jyllands-Posten, it went further in 2011, when it temporarily renamed its weekly “Charia Hebdo,” a play on Shariah, Islamic law, and appointed the Prophet Muhammad as its “editor in chief.”
In 2012, the French authorities increased the police presence outside the Charlie Hebdo office out of concern about another attack. At the time, one of its journalists, Laurent Léger, said that “in France, we always have the right to write and draw.”
He continued: “And if some people are not happy with this, they can sue us, and we can defend ourselves. That’s democracy. You don’t throw bombs, you discuss, you debate. But you don’t act violently. We have to stand and resist pressure from extremism.”
Mr. Charon said the paper was often sued, including 14 times in recent years by the Roman Catholic Church. The New York Times has chosen not to reprint examples of the magazine’s most controversial work because of its intentionally offensive content.
Mr. Charbonnier, like the other Charlie Hebdo journalists, published under his pen name, Charb. His last published cartoon appeared in Wednesday’s issue, a haunting image of an armed and cross-eyed militant with the words, “Still no attacks in France,” and the retort: “Wait! We have until the end of January to offer our wishes.”
Since 2012, Mr. Charbonnier had a police bodyguard, who also died in the attack. “The threats were constant,” the publication’s lawyer, Richard Malka, said. “It’s frightening.”
But Charlie Hebdo thrived on breaking taboos. In the past, Mr. Charbonnier vowed that his cartoonists would keep poking fun “until Islam is just as banal as Catholicism,” but in the process it struggled not only with death threats, but also with its own financial survival.
Its circulation is about 30,000, and like other frail journals in the French newspaper industry, it has turned to its own form of crowdfunding, publishing a coupon on Wednesday for readers to fill out and mail in with checks.
Its chief rival is Le Canard Enchaîné, founded in 1915, which specializes in scoops and leaked secrets, whereas Charlie Hebdo is known for its cruder and more vicious wit. On Wednesday, an editor at Le Canard Enchaîné declined to speak about the shooting. Journalists there were instructed during an emotional afternoon meeting not to discuss the attack.
“It’s too early and too difficult to talk about this right now,” said a journalist there who knew some of the victims at Charlie Hebdo.
Radio France, Le Monde and France Télévisions issued statements late in the day saying they intended to offer staffing and other support to help Charlie Hebdo “live on.”
Doreen Carvajal reported from Paris, and Suzanne Daley from New York.
