Gerard Biard, the new chief editor of Charlie Hebdo, went on “Meet the Press” this morning and blasted news organizations in “democratic countries” who have chosen not to show the most recent issue, which again includes a caricature of the Prophet Muhammed. Chuck Todd asked, “Many news organizations, including our own, have not shown your cover completely. What is your reaction to our decision and others who have chosen not to show your cover?”
BIARD: Listen, we cannot blame newspapers that already suffer much difficulty in getting published and distributed in totalitarian regimes for not publishing a cartoon which could cost them, at best jail, and at worst death. On the other hand, I am quite critical of newspapers which are published in democratic countries.
This cartoon is not just a little figure. It’s a symbol. It’s the symbol of freedom of speech, of freedom of religion, of democracy, and secularism. It is this symbol that these newspapers refuse to publish, this is what they must understand. When they refuse to publish this cartoon, when they blur it out, when they decline to publish it, they blur out democracy, secularism, freedom of religion, and they insult the citizenship.
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