Culture | Free speech in France

Ten years after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, satire is under siege

Public support is waning for the right to offend

The front page of the new issue of satirical French weekly Charlie Hebdo entitled "C'est Reparti" ("Here we go again"), is displayed at a kiosk in Nice February 25, 2015.
Photograph: Reuters
|PARIS

On the morning of January 7th 2015 two men, Chérif and Saïd Kouachi, stormed the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical newspaper. Armed with Kalashnikovs, the pair murdered 12 people, including eight editorial staff, in less than two minutes. The perpetrators, who were linked to al-Qaeda, did not pick Charlie Hebdo by chance. For years, the irreverent newspaper had poked fun at religion, including Islam. It was the start of the worst-ever year of Islamist terrorist attacks in Paris, which killed nearly 150 people.

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