French nationals have been advised to leave Pakistan due to violent demonstrations after the arrest of the leader of a hardline political party calling for France's ambassador to be expelled over his government's defence of the right to show cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Turkish state media have announced that the country's prosecution services have opened an investigation after the publication of a cartoon in this week's edition of satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo magazine depicting Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan holding a beer can and lifting a veiled woman's dress with the caption, 'In private he's very funny'.
There were more fierce protests and calls for a boycott of French goods in Muslim countries on Monday following President Emmanuel Macron's defence of the right to publish cartoons of the prophet Muhammad during a homage to teacher Samuel Paty who was beheaded by a fundamentalist for showing the cartoons to his pupils in a lesson on civic rights and free speech.
Regional French newspaper La Nouvelle République announced it had filed a formal complaint after its republishing last weekend of cartoons from Charlie Hebdo magazine of Prophet Mohammed prompted threats against it on social media.
French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, whose staff were targeted in a January 2015 shooting massacre which left 12 dead, has announced its edition to be published Wednesday, when 14 people accused of being accomplices to the attack are to stand trial in Paris, will contain a reprint of the cartoons of Prophet Mohammed that were cited as the motive for the terrorists.
The authorities in Amatrice, after which is named a pasta dish, launches legal action over cartoons mocking victims of the devastating August earthquake as 'penne in tomato sauce' and 'lasagne'.
The attack by gunmen on the offices of Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday came almost nine years after the French satirical magazine found itself at the centre of a fierce controversy for first reproducing in France the so-called ‘Prophet Muhammad caricatures’ originally published in a Danish newspaper. Charlie Hebdo has since continued to publish cartoons that mock Islamic fundamentalism, prompting the anger of a section of Muslims in France and abroad, and which led to a devastating firebomb attack on its offices in 2011. The magazine has regularly defended its position as that of a satirical publication that is equally irreverent towards the hypocrisies of all religions. Dan Israel traces the bitter background to Wednesday’s horrific outrage.
The freedom of the press is not just for reporters, photographers and editors; it is also essential for newspaper and magazine cartoonists who pass comment on the latest events in their own satirical, humorous, irreverent and often profound way. That is why at the end of 2013 the press freedom group Reporters sans frontières - Reporters without Borders – has published a book of topical cartoons. The work '100 dessins de Cartooning for Peace pour la liberté de la presse' ('100 drawings from Cartooning for Peace for the freedom of the press') carries a preface by former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan who, together with celebrated French satirical cartoonist Plantu, is co-founder of the association Cartooning for Peace. The book contains three chapters, on freedom of expression, power and the press, and features works both from established artists and those who have been recently discovered via their blogs or on social networks. All profits from the book, which can be bought here, will go to finance the work of Reporters sans frontières.
