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FFrance has symbolically regained control of the dramatic events of January 2015 with the trial of “Charlie Hebdo” at the Palais de Justice in Paris. At the time, the government seemed driven by Islamist terrorists who deceived the security forces for three long days. The breeding ground for terrorism was examined with meticulous precision in the trial against the perpetrators. Most of the eleven convicted were henchmen. But they created an environment of social neglect, crime and loss of all sense of justice, which the three murderers took advantage of. Not just for those bereaved by the seventeen deaths, the ruling carries the message that the rule of law will prevail.
The fight for freedom of expression is in no way won by sentencing. In reprinting the Mohammed cartoons, the editorial team of “Charlie Hebdo” raised the question of how freedom to mock and criticize is measured in a democratic society. The debate that followed the beheading of history professor Samuel Paty shows how great the temptation to self-censorship is. Teachers have already stated that they no longer want to show cartoons in press freedom classes. Paty had also come to the conclusion that in the future she would rather use China as an example to explain freedom of the press.
The Turkish president led a campaign because Paris approved the reprint of the cartoons. Emmanuel Macron has been criticized in the US press for defending the drawings in the name of freedom of expression. The New York Times even decided in June 2019 to ban the newspaper’s cartoons.
It is therefore noteworthy that the rector of the Great Mosque of Paris has asked the editorial team of “Charlie Hebdo” to continue drawing and caricaturing. Muslims do not benefit from censorship and false consideration, Hafiz Chemseddine warned. That’s exactly what it’s all about: Islamists shouldn’t be the ones determining where the limits of free speech lie.
