Alex, cartoonist for Courrier Picard receives a death threat via Facebook as colleagues in France and around the world mark the fourth anniversary of the atrocity at Charlie Hebdo‘s office.
After posting a cartoon featuring Eric Drouet, recently arrested leader of the gilets jaune protest movement as a bird ensnared in glue (a reference to a hunting practice upheld in French courts last week), the cartoonist Alexandre Hébert, pen name Alex was told by a Facebook user that he was “lucky” not to be “executed” for daring to draw such a thing.
In recent days people across France and around the world had been preparing to mark the four years that have passed since the terrorist attack at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, where five cartoonists were among the dozen fatalities. Laurent Sourisseau, pen name Riss, wounded on that day and now managing director of the magazine is quoted in La VDN’s coverage as saying there should be “criminal consequences” for such comments.
CRNI can confirm that Alex has made a formal complaint about the post. Our representative in Europe said:
It’s regrettable that this week of all weeks we should see a French cartoonist have to contend with any kind of message invoking death. Freedom of expression includes the right to opinions we may find crude, vulgar, tasteless or stupid. It does not include the right to threaten violence. In the UK as well as France we’re witnessing actions by a minority who seem to think a yellow vest provides license to conflate legitimate protest and civil disobedience with targeted threats against specific individuals. As ever, the only appropriate response to an “offensive” cartoon is a better, smarter, funnier one.
Terry Anderson, CRNI deputy executive director
