Charlie Hebdo editorial team makes first appearance since attack
For the first time since the attack on the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo nearly five years ago, the editorial staff has appeared in public again. Editor-in-Chief Riss said Saturday at a panel discussion organized by the World Forum for Democracy at the Strasbourg Opera House that the newspaper had «regained its vitality and dynamism.».
Beforehand, the paper's staff had been welcomed by the audience to great applause and shouts of bravo. The editorial team used the appearance to do what they do best: score points with biting humor.
For example, a drawing by Philippe Vuillemin showed a ringmaster inscribed with the words "And for the first time in a play, the editorial office of 'Charlie Hebdo' in Strasbourg!"
Three discussion panels addressed topics such as "Censorship and Threats" and the 50th anniversary of the founding of Charlie Hebdo in the coming year. Riss had told the AFP news agency before the event that satire was still a "struggle." "Humor is suspect to many people," he said.
January 7 marks the fifth anniversary of the Islamist attack on Charlie Hebdo, in which twelve people were killed - including some of France's best-known cartoonists.
The appearance of the editors and draftsmen in Strasbourg therefore took place under particularly strict security precautions: The members of Charlie Hebdo were given police protection, the doors of the opera opened two hours before the start of the discussion because of the extensive controls. "The attacks were an absolute shock. So we had to come, simply out of sympathy, out of empathy," explained one of the audience members.
The event took place within the framework of the World Forum for Democracy, officially organized by the Council of Europe in the Alsatian capital from November 6 to 8 under the motto "Information: democracy in danger?". (SDA)
