DANIEL PEARL AWARD for Courage and Integrity in Journalism

An Unending Display of Courage THE STAFF OF SATIRICAL MAGAZINE ACCEPTS THE DANIEL PEARL AWARD

BY PAT T o this very day, and throughout and hypocrisy wherever they were found, in written forcefully that “we are all Americans.” colleagues were murdered, told the Liberation MORRISON the world—and often in the farther places secular and religious. Now, millions proclaimed, they too were newspaper right after the attacks, “They reaches of the world, whether a fire- Charlie Hebdo is no modern-day anomaly. French, they were Charlie. wanted to completely eradicate a newspa- fight in Syria or a park in Guatemala— It is the inheritor of a tradition of satire deeply With signs, with candles, with song, and per. This is not ‘just’ kill the editor. There are Tjournalists are getting murdered just for being embedded in French culture, in centuries of with pens and pencils held aloft, the French no words. This is really an act of war. All for journalists and practicing their craft. writers and performers. The magazines that massed in their cities and towns by the hun- drawings… Charlie had a mission, supported But on Jan. 7, 2015, murder happened not were the immediate precursors of Charlie dreds of thousands to show their support of by some, opposed by others. I am even more one by one, not in places far from the interna- Hebdo were born, were banned, disappeared, free speech and defiance of those who would aware today how important this fight is. We tional seats of power, but to nine journalists sued, were firebombed and hacked, threat- try to kill it. The message was also spread in were all in agreement that we should not give killed at once, all shot to death, and four oth- ened, and at last reborn. cities across the globe. ers wounded, on the second floor of a placid The staff of Charlie Hebdo is the recipient Novelist , who knows office building in the vibrant heart of one of of the Los Angeles Press Club’s Daniel Pearl what it’s like to wear a target, wrote in the “I’ve got no kids, no wife, no car, no credit cards. the most fabled and civilized cities in the Award for Courage and Integrity in Journalism. Guardian newspaper after the attacks: “Stand Perhaps what I’m going to say sounds a bit pompous, world—Paris. At Charlie Hebdo, threats were no anom- with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend These were murders directed not only aly, either. The magazine’s editor, Stephane the art of satire, which has always been a but I prefer to die standing up rather than living on at human beings, but at what those human Charbonnier, was among the dead, as was force for liberty and against tyranny, dishon- my knees.” — Stéphane Charbonnier (Charb) beings practiced and stood for: the principle his police bodyguard. Charbonnier had told esty and stupidity.” of free speech. the French newspaper several Cartoonists the world over paid tribute in. But they decided to eradicate this symbol The French satirical magazine Charlie years before that his cartoons shocked “those to their professional kin with cartoons of of freedom that was Charlie.” Hebdo long prided itself on being an equal who will want to be shocked… I don’t feel as their own proclaiming the pen’s enduring In fact, that still is “Charlie,” as the murders opportunity offender, leveling its satirical though I’m killing someone with a pen… I’m might over the sword: an automatic weapon meant to intimidate have only served to steel barbs and cartoons at power, pomposity not putting lives at risk. When activists need arrayed against a mass of pencils; the Statue the resolve and unity of journalists. Fischetti a pretext to justify their violence, they always of Liberty, a French gift to the United States, is here representing his colleagues, living and Antonio Fischetti find it.” cradling a copy of Charlie Hebdo in her arm; dead, to accept the Pearl Award. Extremists had firebombed the magazine’s a masked terrorist cutting off the head of a The award was named for the Southern Paris office in 2011, after the publication of pencil only to see a hundred more spring up California journalist and Wall Street Journal an issue editors sardonically said had been in its place. reporter who was kidnapped and murdered “guest-edited” by the prophet . The week following the attacks, Charlie in the line of duty in 2002, investigating Al Thereafter, the paper had moved to the loca- Hebdo was published on schedule, not with Qaeda links to the shoe-bomber terrorist tion where the killers attacked this year. its usual 60,000 copies, but ultimately with a Richard Reid. Since that year, and beginning After the January 2015 attack, the swell of press run of as many as 5 million, the revenue with Daniel Pearl himself, the award has been support for Charlie Hebdo’s staff, and for the going to the families of the victims. given to those who epitomize courage and free speech rights it practices, was instanta- Its cover: the headline “All is forgiven,” and integrity in journalism. neous. It was also international. The hashtag a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad, holding Those are traits clearly displayed in the #jesuisCharlie leaped to the top of Twitter. a sign reading, “.” work the staff of Charlie Hebdo did before Jan. In September 2001, after the terrorist Charlie Hebdo journalist Antonio Fischetti, 7, and the work the magazine continues to attacks on the United States, Le Monde had who had been attending a funeral when his do today.

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