The eye of the media hurricane is in a nondescript office building located between manicured tennis courts, a cultural center and the Paris ring road. A couple of advertising firms are located here, as is a department of the city police which is responsible for traffic tickets. The location is, above all else, discreet. There is no nameplate that refers to the weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo. The publication, which has around 25 employees, is listed on the intercom under a different name. The only difference to the normally quiet atmosphere is that a riot police van is parked outside the building.
It is here, in the far east of the French capital, that the publisher and editorial staff of Charlie Hebdo have worked since their former editorial offices were destroyed a year ago in an arson attack. Although no one claimed responsibility for the crime, it was apparently motivated by cartoons about Islam that the magazine had published in a special issue under the polemical title "Charia Hebdo," a reference to Islamic Sharia law.
Now the magazine and its editor in chief Stéphane Charbonnier, who is also a cartoonist himself, are back in the headlines. The satirical magazine has triggered a storm of indignation with its publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad this week. Representatives of the French Council of Muslims, prominent imams and French government officials have all criticized the professional polemicists, who violate political, social and religious taboos on a weekly basis. France has stepped up security at its embassies and other institutions abroad as a precaution.
The US government also expressed concern at the publication of the cartoons. "We don't question the right of something like this to be published, we just question the judgment behind the decision to publish it," said White House spokesman Jay Carney. » | Thursday, September 20, 2012
