Charlie Hebdo Will Be Published Next Week, Says Former Writer

A former writer for Charlie Hebdo has said the next edition of the magazine will be published as usual next week despite the murder of ten of its journalists yesterday.

Caroline Fourest, who worked for the satirical magazine in 2011, claimed the terror attacks will not silence the surviving cartoonists. She told Australia’s ABC that employees past and present will band together over the coming days to ensure the next edition is out for next Wednesday.

“We have all decided, the journalists who survived and their ex-colleagues, that we are going to have a meeting tomorrow to publish the next Charlie Hebdo, because there is no way, even if they killed 10 of us, that the newspaper won’t be out next week,” Ms Fourest said.

Striking a defiant tone, she said fear and self-censorship would be the wrong reaction to yesterday’s attack.

“This is what the jihadis want. They know that this is the way. You just have to kill a few people in every country, which is the easiest thing to do in the world.

“To have an automatic weapon and kill people is really easy. You don’t need any talent to do that. You need talent to be a cartoonist. You need talent to be a journalist.

“Those people without any talent killed many talented people today just to create this emotion, this shock, this reaction of panic and hatred.”

Ms Fourest worked for the magazine when its officers were firebombed after it named the Prophet Muhammed as its “editor-in-chief”.

“Many of my friends who died today were very sweet people, very funny people and very brave people, because they knew that they had to continue to smile and make others smile while defending freedom of the press.

“Many of my colleagues were under police protection for many years. Their lives changed completely after the Cartoon Affair. They were just dealing with that—there is no choice when you are a journalist and you want to be free and you refuse to be silenced just because a violent, stupid guy wants you to be silent.

“You continue to do what you do, what you know how to do, which is to be free.”