Ten years ago today, January 7, 2015, Charlie Hebdo was hit by a terrorist attack in Paris. Twelve people, including eight members of the editorial staff, lost their lives in the attack on the weekly by the brothers Chérif and Saïd Kouachi, Frenchmen of Algerian origin who had pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda. Among the dead are the emblematic director of the newspaper, the cartoonist Charb, as well as two legends of caricature in France, Cabu and Wolinski.
From January 7 to 9, 2015, the Kouachi brothers and Amedy Coulibaly targeted freedom of expression, law enforcement and the Jewish community, during “coordinated” attacks although claimed by two distinct entities, Al-Qaeda. in the Arabian Peninsula (Aqpa) and the Islamic State (IS) organization. Two police officers in Paris and Montrouge, as well as four people of Jewish faith in a Hyper Cacher store at Porte de Vincennes, were also killed during these three days of terror. To these victims was added the former webmaster of Charlie WeeklySimon Fieschi, seriously injured in the attack and died last October, at the age of 40.
This Tuesday and Wednesday, many commemorations are planned. The ceremonies will begin at 11:30 a.m. rue Nicolas-Appert in the 11th arrondissement of the capital, where Charlie Weekly had its premises in 2015. They will continue on Boulevard Richard Lenoir, where police officer Ahmed Merabet was shot dead by the Kouachis as they fled. They will end at 1:10 p.m. with a tribute to the victims of the Hyper Cacher store. On Wednesday, the city of Montrouge will organize a tribute ceremony to municipal police officer Clarissa Jean-Philippe, killed by Amedy Coulibaly, also author of the Hyper Cacher attack.
The commemorations will be “like every year” marked “by sobriety, in accordance with the wishes of the families”, indicated the Paris town hall. Anne Hidalgo will “pay tribute to the victims” in the presence of Emmanuel Macron and several ministers. Before the French ambassadors gathered at the Elysée, the president hoped on Monday that there would be “no respite in the fight against terrorism”: it is “a risk which remains significant in our societies and which implies that there will be no let-up,” he said.
Charlie Hebdo “indestructible”
Ten years after the killing, Charlie Weekly A special 32-page issue is being released alongside the commemorations. On the front page, he calls himself “indestructible!”, with the drawing of a jovial reader sitting on an assault rifle, reading this “historic” newspaper. In this issue, the newspaper publishes a series of caricatures on the theme #LaughingatGod. The weekly, whose anticlerical line has never varied, launched an international competition at the end of 2024 inviting people to draw “anger against the influence of all religions”. Among 350 drawings received, nearly 40 were selected. One shows a mother and her child in a landscape of ruins saying to themselves that “one god is fine, three hello the damage”, another presents a cartoonist who wonders whether to draw “a guy who draws a guy who draws Mohammed , How’s it going ?”.
The newspaper also publishes the results of an Ifop study for the Jean-Jaurès Foundation carried out in June 2024 indicating that 76% of French people believe that “freedom of expression is a fundamental right” and that “freedom of caricature is one of them “. Riss, Charb’s successor at the head of Charlie Weeklyunderlines in the editorial that “satire has a virtue that has helped us get through these tragic years: optimism”. “Whatever dramatic or happy happens, the desire to laugh will never disappear,” he says, looking back on the last few years marked, according to him, by a “geopolitical situation” which “ aggravated.”
Alongside this special issue on newsstands, several daily newspapers are devoting their front pages to the tenth anniversary of the attack: “Liberty, Liberty Charlie!” title like this Releasewhile Le Figaro is worried to see France “still under the Islamist threat” ten years later. “The terrorist threat has never been so present,” says Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau on the front page of Parisianwhile the shadow of a pencil and an eraser pierced by a bullet draws a “10” on the front page of The Cross.
Special broadcast
The public group France Télévisions is also getting in tune. From 10:50 a.m., France 2 will offer a special live broadcast to follow the commemorations. Then the channel will program an exceptional evening around the questions “Are we all still Charlie ? Where are we with freedom of expression?” Live from the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, host Caroline Roux will receive journalists and cartoonists from Charlieincluding Riss. Other guests, “specialists in terrorism, to decipher the state of the threat today”, “teachers and students” on the question of secularism, and “comedians, artists, writers” who “s “will question freedom of expression,” the channel said. The INA (National Audiovisual Institute) will also offer several formats linked to this anniversary and based on period archives, on its social networks, its website and its Madelen streaming platform.
Furthermore, several books participate in this commemoration in their own way. Thus the association “Cartooning for peace” joined forces with Gallimard to publish “Tenir la ligne, 40 drawings for Charlie“, in the Tracts collection. In the form of a pamphlet, the journalist Daniel Schneidermann deplores in “Le Charlisme” (at Seuil from January 10) the disappearance of the spirit Charlie original. Finally, the Cherche Midi editions are reissuing “Toujours aussi idiots!” by Cabu and “Fou d’amour” by Wolinski.