Charlie Hebdo panel raises the question: Just because you can say it, should you?

Nous Sommes Tous Charlie Symposium

By Amanda Nero

The Charlie Hebdo attack was the topic of discussion at the Nous Sommes Tous Charlie symposium at MU on Jan. 3.

MU Professor Sandra Davidson talks about free speech at the Nous Sommes Charlie symposium on Jan. 3. Photo cred: Olivia Paggiarino.

The symposium opened up talks about freedom of speech, hateful speech, and speech permitted by the law. The discussion was led by a panel of MU Professor Sandra Davidson, political cartoonist and author Khalil Bendib, and director of the Ethical Journalism Network Aidan White.

Political cartoonist and author Khalil Bendib speaks at the Nous Sommes Tous Charlie symposium on Jan. 3. Photo cred: Olivia Paggiarino.

Gunmen Cherif and Said Kouachi walked into the Charlie Hebdo office and proceeded to shoot resulting in the death of 12 people on Jan. 7. The attack was in retaliation for the  cartoons about Islam that the satirical magazine previously ran.

A political cartoon from Khalil Bendib’s website displayed at the Nous Sommes Tous Charlie symposium on Jan. 3. Photo cred: Olivia Paggiarino

The track record of Charlie Hebdo publishing culturally offensive content was discussed. Both White and Bendib debated if and where the publication should have drawn the red line.

It was unanimous that acts of terror like this are always unjustifiable, but agreement on when it becomes a hate crime to publish belligerent commentaries about other groups remained gray.

By the end of the discussion all the panelists related the Charlie Hebdo story to numerous freedom of expression examples from around the world.

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