Lesson of Charlie Hebdo: Support Many Publications

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/01/2015 (3923 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It is ironic that the terrorists who murdered staff at Charlie Hebdo in Paris last week gave life to a publication that had been dying.

Often overlooked in the coverage of the terrible crimes aimed at the freedom of expression is the fact that the satirical Paris weekly was barely surviving.

Yes, it had a rich history of breaking every taboo and bravely facing the fallout – firebombing, death threats, etc.

But its circulation had dwindled and by last November it was asking for donations just to stay open.

Public apathy was a far greater force than the antipathy of any group offended by the cartoons published weekly in the magazine.

Indifference might have triumphed had terrorists not taken up guns.

On Wednesday, three million copies of this week’s Charlie Hebdo will roll off the presses.

Two things are certain – they will contain cartoons of Muhammad and they will be snapped up by a public eager to declare again: “Je suis Charlie.”

The terrorists’ guns ensured that the magazine’s message will multiply around the world.

Perhaps everyone trying to get a copy and holding up signs in support should remember what might have happened without the guns.

It’s important to stand up for the democratic right to free speech, as millions have.

It’s also important to defend this right in a real way, not by a single purchase of a special issue, but through regularly supporting and reading publications.

Sure, the Winnipeg Free Press is in that category and you could dismiss this as a self-interested pitch. But I’m talking generally, not specifically.

Buy any publication, any newspaper, any magazine, that will help to inform you about the world, be it what is happening in your back yard or anywhere else.

Help keep the publications that practice free expression healthy.