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Charlie Hebdo: France's satirical magazine in new controversy
French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo is making headlines again by stirring outrage in Iran.
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French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo's publication director, cartoonist and writer Laurent Sourisseau, known as Riss, arrives at the Paris courthouse in Paris, on September 9, 2020, for a hearing of the trial of 14 suspected accomplices in Charlie Hebdo and Hyper cacher jihadist killings. (AFP/Stephane de Sakutin)
F
rench satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo is making headlines again by stirring outrage in Iran, demonstrating that it has lost none of its appetite for provocation or its ability to stir up diplomatic problems abroad.
The irreverent and militantly atheist publication operates today with round-the-clock police protection and from a secret location, seven years after it was attacked by Islamist gunmen.
Twelve people died in that assault, including some of its most famous cartoonists, but it continues to caricature and mock politicians and public figures in a style that is deliberately vulgar and disrespectful.
Most controversially of all, it has repeatedly published caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed -- acts seen as blasphemous by many Muslims and which were used as justification for the 2015 attack on its staff.
"There is nothing to regret," Charlie Hebdo's director Laurent Sourisseau, known as "Riss", told a French court in 2020 during a trial of accomplices to the 2015 gunmen.
"What I regret is to see how little people fight to defend freedom. If we don't fight for our freedom, we live like a slave and we promote a deadly ideology," added the cartoonist, who was himself injured in the attack.
The murders sparked a global outpouring of solidarity with France and freedom of speech under the "I am Charlie" slogan, but the publication also makes many people queasy, including in France.
