Charlie Hebdo: This is the terrifying price we pay for free speech in a liberal democracy – Comment – Voices – The Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/charlie-hebdo-there-can-be-no-negotiation-between-liberal-democracy-and-totalitarian-theocracy-9963334.html
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Sharpening Contradictions: Why al-Qaeda attacked Satirists in Paris
http://www.juancole.com/2015/01/sharpening-contradictions-satirists.html
The horrific murder of the editor, cartoonists and other staff of the irreverent satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, along with two policemen, by terrorists in Paris was in my view a strategic strike, aiming at polarizing the French and European public.
The problem for a terrorist group like al-Qaeda is that its recruitment pool is Muslims, but most Muslims are not interested in terrorism. Most Muslims are not even interested in politics, much less political Islam.
Al-Qaeda wants to mentally colonize French Muslims, but faces a wall of disinterest. But if it can get non-Muslim French to be beastly to ethnic Muslims on the grounds that they are Muslims, it can start creating a common political identity around grievance against discrimination.
This tactic is similar to the one used by Stalinists in the early 20th century.
“Sharpening the contradictions” is the strategy of sociopaths and totalitarians, aimed at unmooring people from their ordinary insouciance and preying on them, mobilizing their energies and wealth for the perverted purposes of a self-styled great leader.
The only effective response to this manipulative strategy (as Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani tried to tell the Iraqi Shiites a decade ago) is to resist the impulse to blame an entire group for the actions of a few and to refuse to carry out identity-politics reprisals.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Writers living in ‘free’ democracies are self-censoring
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-01/08/pen-survey-government-censorship
The chilling effects of government mass surveillance that Tim Berners-Lee predicted would follow in the wake of the Snowden leaks, appear to have materialised. At least among the writers of the world.
An opinion survey of 772 writers living in 50 countries, including those across Western Europe, was carried out by literary association the PEN American Centre between August 18 and October 15, 2014. It found that writers living in democratic countries classed as “Free” — in terms of self-expression and related liberties — are self-censoring public and private language at levels nearing those of repressed nations.
As you might expect, the team behind the study calls for government reforms around mass surveillance.
The PEN survey, which asked the writers to think about a series of questions specifically in context of government surveillance, used a measure developed by a non-governmental US democracy watchdog to class countries as “Free”, “Partly Free”, or “Not Free”. The results are fairly staggering, with 42 percent of respondents in “Free” countries admitting they have “curtailed or avoided activities on social media, or seriously considered it, due to fear of government surveillance”, versus 53 percent in those countries deemed “Not Free”.
Twenty-six percent of writers in “Free” nations admitted to refraining from conducting internet searches or visiting sites on controversial topics, or seriously considering such behaviour, while the figure is exactly the same for those living in “Not Free” countries.
“Free” nation stats that are just as worrying, though still around 30 percent below the levels of “Not Free” nations, include the admission that 34 percent have avoided writing or speaking on a particular topic, or have seriously considered it, while 31 percent have avoided conversations on phone or email, or seriously considered it.
At a time where journalists are being killed in Europe by extremists, for their ideas, and writers are self-censoring for fear of government intrusion, the future of free speech in the apparently “free” world, looks to be a murky one if left unchallenged.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hannah Jane Parkinson / Guardian:
Google-backed fund donates €250,000 to Charlie Hebdo, Zuckerberg condemns attack, Apple shows solidarity with banner on site
Mark Zuckerberg, Apple and Google respond to Charlie Hebdo attack
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/09/mark-zuckerberg-apple-google-respond-charlie-hebdo-attack
Facebook CEO condemns attack while Google donates £195,000 to support satirical magazine and Apple displays Je Suis Charlie banner on French website
Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, in a post published on his personal profile page on Friday morning, called for a rejection of “extremists trying to silence the voices and opinions of everyone else around the world”.
“I won’t let that happen on Facebook,” he wrote. “I’m committed to building a service where you can speak freely without fear of violence.
“We stood up for this because different voices – even if they’re sometimes offensive – can make the world a better and more interesting place,” he wrote
Tomi Engdahl says:
Charlie Hebdo Attack Chills Satirists and Prompts a Debate
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/10/arts/an-attack-chills-satirists-and-prompts-debate.html?_r=0
The killing of a dozen people in Wednesday’s attack on the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo has prompted an outpouring of tributes from cartoonists around the world, who have flooded the Internet with images ranging from the elegiac to the scabrously rude.
But amid all the “I Am Charlie” marches and declarations on social media, some in the cartooning world are also debating a delicate question: Were the victims free-speech martyrs, full stop, or provocateurs whose aggressive mockery of Islam sometimes amounted to xenophobia and racism?
Charlie Hebdo has had “a much more savage, unforgiving, doing-it-for-the-sake-of-doing-it” spirit than any American publication, said Tom Spurgeon, the author of The Comics Reporter, a website that tracks comics news from around the world.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Anonymous declares war over Charlie Hebdo attack
http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/09/technology/anonymous-charlie-hebdo-terrorists/index.html?iid=TL_Popular
Anonymous declared war on Islamic extremists Friday and promised to take revenge for the attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hedbo.
In a video posted on YouTube, the group of hackers said they would track down websites and social media networks linked to terrorists, and take them down.
“We, Anonymous around the world, have decided to declare war on you the terrorists,” it said.
The video is described as a message for “al Qaeda, the Islamic State and other terrorists,” and promises to avenge the killing of 12 people in Wednesday’s attack.
“We intend to take revenge in their name, we are going to survey your activities on the net, we are going to shut down your accounts on all social networks,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Algerian Offers to Buy Charlie Hebdo to Defend Freedom
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-09/algerian-offers-to-buy-charlie-hebdo-to-defend-freedom.html
Government Support
Nekkaz says he contacted the satirical newspaper’s staff to offer 700,000 euros ($820,000) for a 51 percent stake in Les Editions Rotatives, the holding company that owns the publication and is controlled by senior staff. The terms are the same as a previous offer in 2012 and include a guarantee of independence, he said.
“Muslims accept the publication of Charlie Hebdo caricatures even when it goes against their beliefs,” he said.
The French government has pledged 1 million euros in aid for the magazine, Le Figaro reported. The magazine’s surviving staff plan to print a million copies this week, compared with a typical run of 60,000.
“The strongest response is to say that we’re carrying on,” Prime Minister Manuel Valls told reporters in televised comments. “We must all stand together by the values of freedom and tolerance.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why a Danish newspaper won’t publish the Charlie Hebdo cartoons
Jyllands-Posten was at the center of a 2005 cartoon crisis. After numerous terror threats, editors chose to play it safe
- See more at: http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/jyllands_posten_charlie_hebdo.php#sthash.dC7Y5nRi.dpuf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Deborah Cole / Agence France-Presse:
Firebombing at German paper that ran Charlie Hebdo cartoons — Berlin (AFP) – A German tabloid that reprinted cartoons from the French satirical paper Charlie Hebdo lampooning the Prophet Mohammed was targeted in firebombing Sunday, police said. — With security services on high alert …
Firebombing at German paper that ran Charlie Hebdo cartoons
http://news.yahoo.com/arson-attack-german-paper-ran-charlie-hebdo-cartoons-065348454.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Teju Cole / New Yorker:
Free speech and liberty were already in crisis before the assault on France’s Charlie Hebdo
http://mediagazer.com/#a150110p2
Tomi Engdahl says:
Paris massacre was not a terrorist act primarily on the freedom of expression, write Olli Ainola.
Islamic terrorists often exceed the liberal people’s ability to understand and blurs their thinking.
Multi-politician, journalist and opinion leader was shocked by the Paris massacre. They warned emotionally to the citizens, so that they do not make hasty conclusions.
Liberal opinion leaders have now found a suitable motive for the crime.
Al-Qaeda’s coat did not have freedom of speech, but the liberal intelligentsia, or to be more left-wing intellectuals. The intelligentsia is the face and the names they are known, they cheer. Intellectuals identify themselves more easily kanssaintellektuelleihin than, say, quite ordinary people in shops or at railway stations.
The liberal intelligentsia is an important gatekeeper in France and Finland. Al-Qaeda wants to break this influential group of mental spine to cause social conflicts.
Intellectuals is painful to admit this view. Intellectuals is easier to talk about confusing immunities as granted that the intelligentsia is one of the pawn in a complex war of terrorists. The whims of the intellectuals can never be sure.
Source: http://www.iltalehti.fi/ulkomaat/2015011119005787_ul.shtml
Tomi Engdahl says:
Susie Cagle / Pacific Standard:
Tech companies support free speech only when it doesn’t endanger their ability to make a profit
Do Tech Companies Really Support Free Speech?
http://www.psmag.com/navigation/nature-and-technology/tech-companies-really-support-free-speech-98116/
Tech companies are companies first, and their politics shift to best serve their business. For platforms like Facebook and Google, “free speech” protection is only a central principle when and where it is convenient. And even when it does serve their profit models, it is arguably doing so at the expense of the modern press, the work of cartoonists and other image-makers, and the actual making of “free” speech online.
Tech’s dedication to “free speech” is apparently a quite serendipitous phenomenon.
EVEN WHEN THEY ARE not implicitly supporting assaults on free political speech, tech companies are “democratizing” speech in a way that builds wealth for themselves and strips it from creators. By its nature, the network dilutes authorship.
Tech platforms seeking as much “free” and high-quality content as possible are now in some cases actually preventing the actual making of it. One magazine editor said he doesn’t publish many cartoons because “comics tend to get thrown on Imgur or another source and circulated without credit.”
Modern technology is both useful and dangerous for visual artists.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Alexandra Topping / Guardian:NEW!
With borrowed space and computers, Charlie Hebdo’s staff produced a paper and vowed to continue — Charlie Hebdo’s new edition ‘made with joy as well as pain’ — Editor-in-chief and cartoonist describe process of putting together latest edition of satirical magazine
Charlie Hebdo’s new edition ‘made with joy as well as pain’
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jan/13/charlie-hebdo-3m-copies-languages-french-magazine
“We are happy to have done it, happy to have managed to do it,” he said. “It was difficult because it had to be something of us, something of the events which we have been confronted with. This edition – the whole of Charlie Hebdo is in it. This edition is Charlie Hebdo.”
“I’m sorry we’ve drawn him yet again but the Muhammad we’ve drawn is a man who is crying.”
Charlie Hebdo will come out on Wednesday, with a print run of 3m, instead of the usual 60,000 copies.
In the hours following the bloody attack, the idea that the magazine could come out a week later seemed impossible.
But the reaction of the surviving members – and their compatriots – was immediate.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dylan Byers / Politico:
If media avoids offending one religious group, it should avoid offending all religious groups — Does free media have an obligation to Islam? — In the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks, both America’s paper of record (The New York Times) and its network of record (CNN) …
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2015/01/does-free-media-have-an-obligation-to-islam-201064.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Charlie Hebdo to return on Feb. 25
http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/03/media/charlie-hebdo-february-25/
Charlie Hebdo will return to French newsstands on February 25, a month and a half after the deadly terrorist attack at its offices in Paris.
The new release date was announced by one of the satirical magazine’s staff members, Laurent Leger.
Caroline Fourest, a former staffer who remains friends with many former colleagues at Charlie Hebdo, told CNNMoney that the magazine is resuming publication “thanks to their supporters,” including magazines and publications around the world.
Management of the magazine has revealed little about its plans.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Inside Charlie Hebdo After the Attack
http://www.nytimes.com/video/world/europe/100000003439008/inside-charlie-hebdo-after-the-attack.html?action=click&contentCollection=US%20Open®ion=Article&module=Promotron
Julien Beaupé was in a nearby office when masked gunmen attacked the satirical newspaper. Moments later, he entered the newsroom to help emergency medical workers and survivors.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Angelique Chrisafis / Guardian:
Charlie Hebdo staff ponder bittersweet new success after jihadi terror attack
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/feb/24/charlie-hebdo-staff-ponder-bittersweet-new-success-after-jihadi-terror-attack
French satirical magazine returns to newsstands with financial future secure and print run 50 times greater than before militant Islamists killed 12 journalists
Before the attack, Charlie Hebdo had a print run of between 24,000 and 50,000 copies a week and a modest readership. But after a special commemoration edition published after the attacks sold 8m, with queues at newsstands across France, this week’s edition will have a print run of 2.5m. Charlie Hebdo now has 200,000 subscribers, compared with 8,000 before the attacks.
The magazine, which only a few months ago was struggling financially, now faces the question of how to make the most effective use of the donations that have poured in since the attacks, and how to boost its digital presence. Asked in a radio phone-in whether the magazine risked losing its soul, Riss, the new editor, who was injured in the attacks, said: “We have to hold on to the spirit we had before.”