By Elizabeth Pineau
PARIS (Reuters) – France on Tuesday commemorated the victims of the deadly assault on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine 10 years ago that began a spate of Islamist militant attacks on the country and stoked a debate on press freedoms that still rages today.
Two masked al Qaeda-linked gunmen with assault rifles stormed what were then the offices of Charlie Hebdo and killed 12 people. The attackers sought to avenge the Prophet Mohammad nearly a decade after the atheist and frequently provocative weekly published cartoons mocking the Prophet.
The killings spurred an outpouring of national sympathy expressed in the slogan “Je Suis Charlie” (I am Charlie) and prompted an impassioned debate about freedom of expression and religion in secular France.
“There were scenes I will never forget,” former French President Francois Hollande told Reuters. “We had to act and we did so responsibly, aware that we weren’t finished and that there would be other tragedies. And there were.”
President Emmanuel Macron and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo will lead the commemorations, which include a wreath-laying ceremony and a minute’s silence at three locations in the capital.
Al Qaeda’s Yemen branch had placed Charlie Hebdo’s then editor, Stephane Charbonnier, on its “wanted list” after the magazine first ran the images of the Prophet Mohammad in 2006.
Two attackers born and raised in France stormed Charlie Hebdo’s offices on Jan. 7, 2015, spraying gunfire. They killed eight members of the editorial team, including Charbonnier, and four other people before being shot dead by police.
Over the next two days, another French-born man killed a policewoman and four Jewish hostages in a kosher supermarket in a Paris suburb. He was also shot dead by police.
More than 250 people have been killed in France in Islamist violence since then, laying bare the struggle the country has faced to counter the threat posed by militants.
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
The anniversary has prompted renewed reflection in France about press freedoms. Hollande expressed concern that there was growing self-censorship stemming from fear.
“Should we publish drawings, project certain images, or compile reports when we know they may hurt personalities or communities? There is a form of self-censorship that has taken root,” he said.
Charlie Hebdo published a special edition to mark the anniversary, depicting a man sitting on the butt of gun in front of the word “Indestructible!” on its cover.
“Today the values of Charlie Hebdo – such as humour, satire, freedom of expression, ecology, secularism, feminism, to name a few – have never been so under threat,” it said in an editorial.
Charlie Hebdo’s no-taboo journalism divides France. For Muslims any depiction of the Prophet Mohammad is blasphemous.
Critics of Charlie Hebdo accuse it of crossing the line and straying into Islamophobia by repeatedly publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. The magazine denies this and says it lampoons all religions, including Christianity.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau; writing by Marine Strauss; Editing by Richard Lough and Timothy Heritage)
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