A decade after jihadists stormed its Paris newsroom killing eight staff members, satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo is charting an ambitious course for its next 10 years. Chief editor Gerald Biard tells RFI the paper remains resolute in its mission to mock all religions.
The Kouachi brothers, who had pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda, attacked Charlie Hebdo on 7 January 2015, killing eight staff members, including cartoonists Cabu, Charb, Honoré, Tignous and Wolinski.
The satirical weekly had, since 2006, riled Islamists with its caricatures of the Propet Mohammed.
Despite the trauma, the magazine continues to take swipes not just at Islam but Christianity, Judaism and any other insitutionalised belief system, in line with its defence of freedom of expression and the French form of secularism known as laicité.
The front cover of its 10th anniversary edition shows a Charlie Hebdo reader sitting on a rifle under the headline "indestructible".
The issue contains a selection of caricatures of God, submitted through a global competition launched in November 2024.
"The most interesting are the ones without captions, because the whole world understands with no need for translation,” Biard told RFI. “It’s very difficult to pull off that kind of drawing, but when you succeed it’s unparalleled.”
One cartoon shows Christ on the cross taking a selfie. Another depicts a cartoonist wondering whether it’s acceptable to draw “a guy who draws a guy who draws Mohammed”.
"God is an idea like any other... no less or more respectable than any other,” argues Biard.
“Like all ideas, we have the right to laugh about it, make fun of it, contest it... to make fun of what it embodies, of those who claim to speak in its name or in their name, because there are thousands of deities around the world.”
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Ongoing threats
Biard is speaking to RFI in the offices of Charlie Hebdo's press liaison. The location of its newsroom remains a closely guarded a secret due to ongoing death threats.
Biard said many people on social media face similar harassment.
Criticism of Charlie Hebdo comes from various quarters, not just those offended by its religious satire. A recent cover featuring rape victim Gisèle Pelicot also sparked backlash.
Veteran cartoonist Riss recently expressed feelings of isolation, saying that criticism of Charlie Hebdo often outweighs support. Biard echoed this sentiment, saying he wished for “more support, or simply some support, instead of continuing to put targets on our backs”.
But he takes comfort from subscribers, loyal readers, people who write in every week "most of whom say how important Charlie is to them" – which is "nice to hear".
The paper, founded in 1970, counts 30,000 subscribers and sells around 50,000 copies per week.
A survey by the Fondation Jean-Jaurès in June 2024 found that 76 percent of French people believe “freedom of expression is a fundamental right,” with the freedom to caricature included.
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Satire in decline
However, Charlie Hebdo finds itself in a smaller and smaller playing field as newspapers grow shy of satirical cartooning.
The New York Times has stopped, and last week The Washington Post killed a cartoon featuring its billionaire owner Jeff Bezos kneeling before a statue of President-elect Donald Trump. Its creator, Ann Telnaes, resigned as a result.
"Press drawings, satire, caricature, causes you hassle," Biard concedes. "So clearly The New York Times’ editorial board prefers to have peace and tranquillity.
"This is awkard though, when you claim to defend democracy and freedom of expression in a country that will, I think, need it over the next four years."
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Looking forward
Cartoons remain an “essential” journalistic tool, Biard argues. “They show society what we cannot or do not want to see.” The boundaries of satire, he says, are defined by France’s 1881 law on freedom of the press, which addresses defamation, racism and antisemitism.
"It's quite clear and applies to all citizens," Biard adds. In addition, everyone has their own limits.
"There are subjects I wouldn't treat. For example I won’t talk about someone's private life if they haven’t themselves made it public or if it doesn’t concern society at large."
He considers that Charlie Hebdo's gritty and sometimes nasty humour still has its place.
"There is no reason to stop. And we’re not the only ones using this type of humour," he says.
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Reflecting on the loss of colleagues in the 2015 attacks – including psychanalyst Elsa Cayat, subeditor Mustapha Ourra and economist Bernard Maris – Biard says: “They’re still with us. We carry them in us, and they’re always present in the pages of the newspaper.”
With an independent business model, Charlie Hebdo operates without external shareholders or advertising. "It lives thanks to its readership, that's quite rare, very rare in fact," Biard says.
The editorial team of between 30 and 40 people collaborates with a host of young cartoonists and journalists. The publication's future, he says, is increasingly in their hands.
"The future of Charlie isn’t Paris, it isn’t me. It’s them."
While the 7 January anniversary is a "fundamental date in the newspaper's history", the younger generation are the ones "who’ll also make the Charlie Hebdo of 10 years on".
"That’s what we’re aiming for, what we’re thinking about, and I hope, where we’re heading."
