Charlie Hebdo, Cartoonists and Others React to Paris Shooting With Defiance, Resilience

Jan 09, 2015 07:45 AM EST

Charlie Hebdo Response
Twitter/David Pope

If the ultimate aim by the shooters in Wednesday's attack against Charlie Hebdo's headquarters in Paris was to silence journalists and cartoonists in France and around the world, then their objective ultimately failed.

That's because the French satirical magazine plans to keep on publishing despite a devastating attack that left 12 people dead in Paris. According to Krishnadev Calamur of NPR, Charlie Hebdo plans to print 1 million issues next week.

"The 1 million print-run figure came from Richard Malka, a lawyer for Charlie Hebdo, in an interview with Les Echoes," Calamur wrote. "The magazine typically has a print run of 60,000 and a circulation of about 30,000."

Calamur added that Google will give about $296,000 to the magazine from its press innovation fund. According to Jane Martinson and Mark Sweney of The Guardian, French media groups such as Le Monde, France Télévisions and Radio France are working on plans to contribute similar amounts.

"This money is expected to be taken from a donation tax," Martinson and Sweney wrote. "In a further sign of the French media uniting to save the weekly, the two groups involved in the distribution of the papers will take no fee for next week's issue."

The director of Google IPWA Fund for Digital Innovation, Ludovic Blecher, told the Guardian that various uncoordinated efforts have attempted to support the publication after the attack, despite the fact the magazine leans to the left.

"We are a fund for the press," Blecher said. "We must enable them to be able to write, even if we don't agree, it's a question of diversity of speech."

Blecher added that in terms of providing financial support to Charlie Hebdo, the fund was "working on a process in order to find an exceptional answer to an exceptional solution."

"The role of the fund is to help the press," Blecher said. "We're playing our role. But we are still working on the technical process."

Cartoonists from around the world have also stepped up in the name of press freedom by reacting to the events in Paris with a pen and paper. Ryan Broderick of Buzzfeed News shared some of the drawings made by various cartoonists.

"He drew first," Rafael Mantesso wrote in an Instagram post depicting a gun blaming a broken red pencil for inciting violence.

Charlie Hebdo Response
rafaelmantesso/Instagram 

"I am devastated by what just happened in France," Jean Julien wrote on Twitter, including a drawing a pencil blocking the barrel of an automatic gun with the French phrase "Je suis Charlie" in the background.

Charlie Hebdo Response
'I am Charlie' by Jean Jullien. Photo: Twitter

"A terrible day for all cartoons," Magnus Shaw wrote on Twitter, which included a picture of a sad Charlie Brown with the French phrase "Je suis Charlie" (which translates into English as "I Am Charlie").

 

Charlie Hebdo Response

As for the people of Paris, Kim Hjelmgaard of USA Today noted that they were determined to prove the pen is mightier than the sword. Despite the presence of heavily armed police patrolling the city, both tourists and locals carried on with their daily lives.

"Liberty is in Paris' DNA, and our city has offered refuge to writers, philosophers and journalists threatened elsewhere as a result of their ideas," Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said to USA Today. "Following this monstrous attack, it is our duty to stand strong and firm."

Hidalgo added that the best response to the recent terrorist attacks consisted of "solidarity and unity."

USA Today noted that the city of Paris will declare the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo "an honorary citizen" on Friday, which is considered a rare distinction in France. The 12 people who died in Wednesday's attack included the weekly's editorial director, four acclaimed cartoonists and two police officers.