Ten years after the attack on Charlie Hebdo: the magazine does not give in to violence

Ten years after the jihadist attack on the editorial office of Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical weekly continues its fight for freedom of expression, despite threats and the climate of tension

Ten years after the attack that struck the Paris editorial office of Charlie Hebdo on 7 January 2015, costing twelve people their lives, the French satirical magazine continues its battle for freedom of expression. The special edition, out on Tuesday 7 January 2025, contains a clear message: ‘They did not kill Charlie Hebdo’, a statement that encapsulates the resilience and determination of the newsroom, now in a secret and highly protected location.

On 7 January 2015, the French-Algerian brothers Chérif and Said Kouachi, armed with Kalashnikovs, burst into the newsroom during a meeting, killing twelve people, including editor Stephane Charbonnier and the magazine’s best-known cartoonists. The attack was claimed by AQAP, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as revenge for caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad published years earlier.

The Kouachi brothers were killed after a siege in the village of Dammartin en Goele, but the long wave of jihadist violence continued to hit France, culminating in other tragedies such as the Bataclan and Nice attacks. Despite this, Charlie Hebdo has not changed its editorial line, and the upcoming special edition confirms this with cartoons denouncing the influence of religions on society.

Charlie Hebdo’s editorial director, Riss, continues to live under escort, a sign that the threat has not gone away. The Charlie Hebdo massacre is now ‘a page in history’, as Laurent Bihl, a specialist in satire at the Sorbonne, pointed out, but challenges to freedom of expression persist. The growing pressure of social networks and the terrorist threat have reduced the space for satire, and the closure of programmes such as Les Guignols de l’info in 2018 and the New York Times’ decision to stop publishing satirical cartoons in 2019 are concrete examples of this.

Imam Hassen Chalghoumi, a promoter of inter-religious dialogue who has always been under escort for his stances against Islamic extremism, reiterates the importance of the fight against radicalism. ‘We are all in the same fight, to protect our freedom, our values and our humanity,’ says the Tunisian imam, recalling how the attack on Charlie Hebdo and other tragedies have traumatised French society.

Ten years after the massacre, the satirical magazine resists, continuing to publish and defend the freedom to laugh, criticise and fight indifference.

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(Photo: © AndKronos)