Coming a decade after the deadly Charlie Hebdo attack, a new campaign is calling for murdered cartoonist Charb to be honoured in France’s Panthéon as a symbol of freedom of expression and republican values.
Ten years after the jihadist attack that decimated the newsroom of Charlie Hebdo, the satirical magazine and the family of its late cartoonist Charb are calling for him to be laid to rest among France’s national heroes in the Panthéon.
“Charb ticks all the boxes,” writes Riss, who succeeded him as Charlie Hebdo’s editor-in-chief, in an editorial due to be published on Wednesday. His “values,” Riss argues, were “exactly those of our democracy.”
Charb – whose real name was Stéphane Charbonnier – was one of 12 people killed when armed extremists stormed the paper’s Paris offices on 7 January 2015.
Riss himself was seriously wounded in the attack, which also claimed the lives of fellow cartoonists Cabu and Wolinski.
Calling him “a journalist executed for his opinions by terrorists on French soil,” Riss says the idea of enshrining Charb in the Panthéon is “not such a stupid one after all.”
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'A strong, unifying gesture'
Would Charb have approved? “No,” admits Riss, “but this isn’t about a reward or an honour – it’s about the values he embodied.”
Whatever the outcome of the request, he adds, the aim is also “to sustain and rekindle reflection on Charb’s values and those of the newspaper.”
A Panthéon induction, he argues, would “engrave in the marble of the Republic the French people’s deep attachment to freedom of expression.”
In a letter addressed to the President of the Republic and published by Charlie Hebdo, Charb’s parents and brother echo that sentiment. “We would like to anchor this event permanently in the country’s history through a strong, unifying gesture,” they wrote.
Beyond freedom of expression, they highlight other ideals that drove Charb’s life: “anti-racism, social justice and secularism” – values that, they say, “unite the great majority of French citizens of all opinions and faiths.”
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Satire targeted by jihadists
The request coincides with the 20th anniversary of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten’s publication of 12 cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, which triggered violent protests in several Muslim-majority countries. Charlie Hebdo’s decision to reprint the drawings in 2006 turned the magazine into a target for jihadists.
To mark the anniversary, the paper is republishing the cartoons in its Wednesday edition, describing the moment as “the anniversary of an international manipulation.”
“These publications [in 2005–2006] and the attack of 7 January 2015 were momentous events,” Riss writes. “Today they have become part of history,” with streets and squares now bearing the names of the victims.
Riss says he proposed the idea of Charb’s induction into the Panthéon to his friend’s family, noting that he and other staff members regularly visit schools to talk about freedom of expression. “It’s not absurd to bring someone from our generation, a contemporary, into the Panthéon,” he told reporters.
Charb was 47 when he was killed – a man who believed that laughter, equality and liberty were all worth defending.
(With AFP)
