The Massacre Down the Street: When Freedom of Expression Becomes Deadly
A foggy morning in Paris. This morning. Gunmen entered a building on a quiet neighborhood street not too far from my own, forced their way into the office of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and shot dead 12 people. The attackers were heard proclaiming “we have avenged the Prophet Muhammad.”
The “crime” of the writers and cartoonists? Satire and freedom of expression. As far as I know, France is still a country of freedom of expression and freedom of the press. So why do these attackers strike out? How dare they attempt to “make the laws” around here?
I don’t know the answers to those questions, but I think about the implications for journalists and writers in general. Oh, I’m not too worried about writers throwing in the towel and ceasing their usual activities. We’re a tough sort. Writers have been persecuted for years and that hasn’t stopped them from continuing to express their thoughts. In fact, this sort of incident usually fires up the good writer, spurring him or her to write with even more candor and passion.
Still, it does send out a terrible message. The idea of “if you write something we don’t like, we’ll kill you.”
In this hostile environment, writers need governments to take a strong and active position. France needs to wake up. The magazine’s journalists had faced threats for quite some time, and the editor was under police protection. Yet any guards on the scene clearly didn’t have the tools needed to defend the staff. Not surprising since French police officers aren’t allowed to carry automatic weapons. Only special units have this privilege.
France isn’t a land where everyone goes about wielding firearms (except the criminals, as we can see in this case). I don’t necessarily think we should be on the defensive, ready to shoot anyone who steps on our sidewalk. But the police should at least have appropriate means to defend us, shouldn’t they? The country has to take action to protect its residents and the tourists who flock here each year.
This time, the situation was close to home. The attack happened exactly 1.5 miles from my apartment. Riots are now going on in a square of gathering that’s even closer. The local schools were on lockdown. Yet, as I dashed outside to buy our daily baguette, all was calm on my unassuming little street.
But is it really calm? What’s cooking in the heads of the French after this assault? And what’s cooking in the heads of the government? We’ve all had a few hours to staunchly defend the freedom of the press, to condemn this barbarous act, to say that it wasn’t fair, to say that the gunmen are terrorists who must be stopped.
Now it’s time to take action. As writers, we can do so through our words. From the French government, however, words aren’t enough.
Adria J. Cimino is the author of the novel Paris, Rue des Martyrs and is co-founder of indie publishing house Velvet Morning Press. She spent more than a decade as a journalist at news organizations including The AP and Bloomberg News. Adria writes about her real-life adventures on her blog Adria in Paris.
