Je Suis Charlie – The Background

Title: Je suis Charlie

Author: Wikipedia

Full Text & Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Je_suis_Charlie
The Internet, Online, 12/01/2015

Sample Text:
“Je suis Charlie” (French pronunciation: ​[ʒə sɥi ʃaʁ.li], French for “I am Charlie”) is a slogan adopted by supporters of free speech and freedom of expression after the 7 January 2015 massacre in which 12 people were killed at the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris, France. It identifies a speaker or supporter with those who were killed at the Charlie Hebdo shooting, and by extension, a supporter of freedom of speech and resistance to armed threats. Some journalists embraced the expression as a rallying cry for the freedom of self-expression.The slogan was first used on Twitter and spread to the Internet at large. The website of Charlie Hebdo went offline shortly after the shooting, and when it returned it bore the legend Je suis Charlie on a black background. The statement was used as the hashtag #jesuischarlie and #iamcharlie on Twitter,as computer printed or hand-made placards and stickers, and displayed on mobile phones at vigils, and on many websites, particularly media sites.Two days after the attack, the slogan had become one of the most popular hashtags in Twitter history…..

Reaction to violence against journalists

Beyond expressing sympathy for the victims, within hours of the attack the hashtag was used by journalists discussing the issue of censorship and threats. Sophie Kleeman of .mic wrote, “#JeSuisCharlie sends a clear message: Regardless of the threat of hatred or violence, journalists and non-journalists alike refuse to be silenced. As Charbonnier said in 2012, following the firebombing of his offices, ‘I have neither a wife nor children, not even a dog. But I’m not going to hide.'”

In the opinion of Gene Policinski, chief operating officer of the Newseum Institute and senior vice president of the First Amendment Center, the Charlie Hebdo killings were part of a string of recent threats toward journalists and freedom of speech, following North Korea’s threats over the controversial release of the film The Interview and ISIS’s executions of journalists. In his opinion, Policinski stated that instead of being successful at silencing anyone, these attempts at censorship and the Paris massacre have backfired and instead brought more awareness and support to freedom of speech. “Ironically, such violence directed at journalists, authors and others is recognition that free expression and the marketplace of ideas—enshrined in the U.S. in the First Amendment—is a powerful weapon against tyranny”, he wrote; “For more than 220 years, in the U.S., the 45 words of the First Amendment have defined the nation’s core freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition. We now have another few words that will serve as a global means of declaring those freedoms: #JeSuisCharlie.”

Journalist Peter Bella wrote that more than 100 reporters were killed “doing their jobs” in 2014 and that “many were executed just because they were journalists.” He said the hashtag “was created to support Charlie Hebdo, the victims, and freedom of the press, speech, and expression. I am Charlie. You are Charlie. We are all Charlie.”

Criticism

Counter-hashtags also appeared as expressions of disagreement with the unconditional support of Charlie Hebdo. #jenesuispascharlie (“I am not Charlie”) was used by those who accuse the magazine of racism. BBC News noted that #JeNeSuisPasCharlie was used a lot of times by critics of Charlie Hebdo. Le Monde reported that a fake bomb was left in the faculty lounge of a French high school containing the message: “Je ne suis pas Charlie”

Echoes
The Huffington Post pointed out the “dark irony” that murdered policeman Ahmed Merabet was named for the same prophet the gunmen allegedly sought to avenge.
Others use the hashtag #jesuisahmed (“I am Ahmed”) to express solidarity with Ahmed Merabet, a Muslim police officer who was killed in the attack on Charlie Hebdo.

After the hostage crisis at the kosher Hypercacher supermarket in Vincennes on 9 January, the Je suis Hypermarcher slogan was launched on an eponymous website. It is reported that 4 hostages were killed in this incident.Presumably targeted for their Jewish religion, people tweet the hashtag #JeSuisJuif (“I am Jewish”) in honor of the victims.

French far-right activists, including Generation Identity and National Front MEP Jean-Marie Le Pen, adopted the slogan “Je suis Charlie Martel”, in reference to the Frankish king who defeated an Islamic invasion in 732 AD.

Roger Kukierman, president of CRIF, a Jewish umbrella organisation, spoke against supporters of the Charlie Hebdo attackers who were using the hashtag “#IamKouachi” on social media, which he called “an apology for murder.”

Usage

Twitter

Je suis Charlie trended at the top of twitter hashtags on 7 January, the day of the attack. By the following afternoon it had appeared more than 3.4 million times, and was being used nearly 6,500 times per minute. By Friday, it had appeared more than 5 million times.

The U.S. Embassy in Paris and the Association Française pour le Nommage Internet en Coopération were among the people and organizations which changed their Twitter profile pictures to the Je suis Charlie placard.

Cartoonists
Numerous cartoonists created art using the slogan. Others used it in combination with pictures of the deceased.
The magazine Charlie Hebdo had used the name Charlie Brown from the Peanuts comic strip, and an image of Charlie Brown crying with the slogan was posted on Twitter.
The Canberra Times’ political cartoonist David Pope released an image of a smoking gun, with a gunmen saying, “He drew first.”
Cartoonist James MacLeod released an image of the power of the gun compared with the power of free speech.
Soshy released an image of a blood-dripping Je suis Charlie in front of the French flag.
Albert Uderzo, creator of Astérix, came out of retirement aged 87 following the attack. He released a new drawing of Astérix punching a villain while declaring “Moi aussi, je suis un Charlie!” (“I too am a Charlie!”)

Demonstrations
Street protest in Strasbourg
Brussels rally in support of the victims of the 2015 Charlie Hebdo shooting
The Je suis Charlie placards and mobile phone displays were used:

Vigils and demonstrations in France:
La Rochelle
Nantes
Lille
Lyon
Marseille
Paris
Nice
Strasbourg
Toulouse.
Tribute to Charlie Hebdo with 150,000 demonstrators in Toulouse, 8–10 January 2015.

Je suis Charlie, Kongens Nytorv, Copenhagen 9 January 2015 (10)

Global vigils:
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Athens, Greece
Berlin, Germany
Brussels, Belgium
Budapest, Hungary
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Calgary, Canada
Cork, Ireland
Dublin, Ireland
Galway, Ireland
Hong Kong
Istanbul, Turkey
Kharkiv, Ukraine
Kiev, Ukraine
Lima, Peru
London, United Kingdom
Leeds, United Kingdom
Los Angeles, United States
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Melbourne, Australia
Montreal, Canada
Moscow, Russia
New York City, United States
Novi Sad, Serbia
Prague, Czech Republic
Reykjavík, Iceland
Saint Julian’s, Malta
San Diego, United States
San Francisco, United States
São Paulo, Brazil
Seattle, United States
Stockholm, Sweden
Sydney, Australia
Taipei, Taiwan
Thessaloniki, Greece
Toronto, Canada
Tokyo, Japan
Vancouver, Canada
Vilnius, Lithuania
Washington, D.C., United States – French Embassy and Newseum
Zagreb, Croatia – Ban Jelačić Square to French Embassy
Cluj, Romania