Charlie Hebdo

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Charlie Hebdo is a French satirical political weekly newspaper, successor of Hara-Kiri, created in 1960. Its editor is currently Philippe Val. It has a strongly left-wing and anarchist slant.

1 History
2 Bibliography
3 External link

[edit] History

In 1960, Georges Bernier, alias "Professeur Choron", and François Cavanna launched a monthly magazine entitled Hara-Kiri. Choron acted as the director of publication and Cavanna as its editor. Eventually Cavanna gathered together a team which included Roland Topor, Fred Othon Aristidès, Jean-Marc Reiser, Georges Wolinski, Georges "Gébé" Blondeaux, and Jean "Cabu" Cabut. After an early reader's letter accused them of being "dumb and nasty", this became an official slogan for the magazine and made it into everyday language in France ("bête et méchant").

The publication was banned in 1961, but reappeared in 1966. Certain collaborators did not return along with the newspaper, such as Gébé, Cabu, Topor, and Fred. New members of the team included Delfeil de Ton, Pierre Fournier, and Bernhard Willem Holtrop.

[edit] 1969 - 1981

In 1969, the team decided to produce a weekly publication as well as a monthly magazine. Gébé and Cabu returned. In February 1969, Hara-Kiri Hebdo was launched, and then renamed L'Hebdo Hara-Kiri in May of the same year.

In November of 1970, Charles de Gaulle died in his home village of Colombey, ten days before a club fire caused the death of 146. The magazine released a cover spoofing the popular press's coverage of this disaster, headlined "Tragic Ball at Colombey, one dead." As a result, the journal was once more banned, this time by the Minister of the Interior.

In order to side-step the ban, the team decided to change its title, and used Charlie Hebdo. The new name was derived from a monthly comics magazine called Charlie Mensuel, which had been started by Bernier and de Ton in 1968. Charlie took its name from Charlie Brown, the lead character of Peanuts, and was possibly also a nod to Charles de Gaulle.

In December 1981, the publication ceased, owing to a lack of readers.

[edit] 1992

From a historical standpoint, there is no direct continuity between the Charlie Hebdo of 1992 and that of its earlier years.

In 1991, Gébé, Cabu and others were reunited to work for La Grosse Bertha, a new weekly magazine resembling Charlie created in reaction to the Gulf War and edited by Val. However, the following year, Val clashed with the publisher, who wanted apolitical mischief, and was sacked. Gébé and Cabu walked out with him and decided to launch their own paper again. The three called upon Cavanna, de Ton and Wolinski, requesting their help and input. After much searching for a new name, the obvious idea of resurrecting Charlie-Hebdo was agreed on.

Thus, the publication of the new Charlie Hebdo began in July of 1992. It profited from the notoriety of its namesake, and was treated as a republication of old. It is said that the first issue sold 100,000 copies.

Professeur Choron tried to restart a weekly Hara-Kiri, but its publication was short-lived.

[edit] From 1992 on...

In the new Charlie Hebdo, Val, Gébé and Cabu hold all the responsibilities. Val serves as editor and Gébé as artistic director. Under Val's direction, the journal carries a leftist view.

It is felt that the current publication does not have continuity or stability, and several collaborators have left the newspaper.

It is published every Wednesday and sometimes issues a few editions variably.

Charlie Hebdo is respected as being nonconformist and liberal, and remains symbolic of the press having a certain freedom of tone. See also Le Canard enchaine.

[edit] 2004

Following the death of Gébé, Val succeeded him as director of the publication, while still holding his position as editor.

[edit] 2005

[edit] 2006

Instant controversy arose over this publication's edition of February 9, 2006. Under the title "Mahomet débordé par les intégristes" ("Muhammad overwhelmed by fundamentalists"), the front page showed a cartoon of a weeping Prophet Muhammad saying "C'est dur d'être aimé par des cons" ("it's hard to be loved by fools"). The newspaper reprinted the twelve cartoons of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy and added some of their own.

Compared to a regular circulation of 100'000 sold copies, this edition was a great commercial success. 160,000 copies were sold, another 150,000 were in print later that day.

In response French President Jacques Chirac condemned "overt provocations" which could inflame passions. "Anything that can hurt the convictions of someone else, in particular religious convictions, should be avoided," Chirac said.

The Grand Mosque and the Union of French Islamic Organisations (UOIF) sue, claiming the cartoon edition included racist cartoons.

[edit] 2007

Suit by the Grand Mosque and the Union of French Islamic Organisations (UOIF) reaches the courts in February.

Publisher Philippe Val contends "It is racist to imagine that they can't understand a joke." but Francis Szpiner, the lawyer for the Grand Mosque, explains the suit: "Two of those caricatures make a link between Muslims and Muslim terrorists. That has a name and it's called racism."

On March 22 2007 executive editor Philippe Val was acquitted by the court [1]. The court followed the state attorney's reasoning that two of the three cartoons were not an attack on Islam, but on Muslim terrorists, and that the third cartoon with Mohammed with a bomb in his turban should be seen in the context of the magazine in question which attacked religious fundamentalism.