"Verbal diarrhea has invaded the planet" denounces "Charlie Hebdo"

Cover of "Charlie Hebdo" from November 18, 2020. -

For the 50th anniversary of Charlie Hebdo, Riss, the editorial director, wonders about "the infinite freedom of speech" at a time when "verbal diarrhea has invaded the planet", a "paradox" for the satirical weekly "born of an act of censorship".

“

of 1970 imagine that the word would be released one day at this point?

Riss asks in the editorial of Wednesday's issue, "half a century" after the very first, November 23, in response to a government desire to silence the monthly

.

"Tragic ball in Colombey, one dead"

The latter had titled, after the death of De Gaulle in Colombey-les-deux-Eglises on November 9, 1970, "Tragic ball in Colombey, un mort", a satirical allusion to the fire of a dance hall which had made more than one 'a hundred deaths that month.

The Interior Ministry having decided to ban the display and sale to minors of the monthly, his team had launched a weekly version -

, a nod to the general - to get around this virtual ban.

"Verbal diarrhea has invaded the planet"

Charlie Hebdo

, "who claimed greater freedom of speech," continues Riss, "today finds itself in the midst of a cacophony of countless opinions" especially on social networks.

"Verbal diarrhea has invaded the planet, and we must deploy superhuman vigilance to sort (...) between true and false, harassment and invasions of privacy, insults and death threats", emphasizes cartoonist.

Paradox

“In fifty years, we have gone from one extreme to another, from a cautious society where information was monitored out of the corner of the eye by the government to an ultra-media society where anyone can say no. 'Anything publicly, without any reservations or fear of any sanction,' he laments.

"It is therefore paradoxical that a newspaper like Charlie Hebdo finds itself alongside those who would like to regulate this infinite freedom of speech", adds Riss.

“Because contrary to what one might think, Charlie has never disputed the idea that there are limits and that freedom of expression (…) cannot justify propagating violence, racism or fanaticism », He emphasizes.

This 50th anniversary comes at a special time for the newspaper, in the midst of the trial of the attacks that decimated its editorial staff in January 2015, and which has been the subject of new threats since the republication of the Muhammad cartoons on September 2.

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