Charlie Hebdo

Perhaps we should back off from legislating on what others can and cannot say?

Mick Fealty on November 5, 2015, 5:10 pm | Readers 1746

This one has been bubbling under for the last 24 hours. It’s to do with late Joe McWilliams and the one painting he offered the Royal Ulster Academy: The RUA said McWilliams was a former president between 2000 and 2004 and as a senior academician with the organisation, was entitled to submit work “without selection” meaning he was responsible for deciding the piece, its subject matter and treatment, for the exhibition. RUA president Dr Denise Ferran said: “This year, due …

“…there is no debate because there can be no debate”

Mick Fealty on April 22, 2015, 3:56 pm | Readers 1244

This from Belfast emigre Robert McLiam Wilson, via Henry McDonald: “I am feeling a touch of shame today. Cancelling such an event in the face of putative menace in a city that endured a 30-year torture of self-immolation seems worse than pusillanimous. Belfast? Seriously? This is not the city I remember. This cancellation says, with trumpeting clarity, that there is no debate because there can be no debate. There is a big boat that can’t be rocked.” He added: “Charlie …

Stewart Dickson: Comprendre t-il?

Turgon on January 23, 2015, 6:45 pm | Readers 656

A scant few days ago many in the world were united in saying “Je suis Charlie” to identify with the journalists at Charlie Hebdo. Many may regard Charlie Hebdo as frequently insulting, tasteless and at times unpleasant. However, the point was that freedom of speech to say (or write or draw) insulting, tasteless and unpleasant views is a vital tenant of democracy. Unfortunately Alliance MLA Stewart Dickson seems not to have understood the principle. He has now complained to the …

Drawing Charlie

Brian Spencer on January 13, 2015, 7:49 pm | Readers 776

One of my favourite cartoonists has made one of the best cartoons, if something good can come out of all this bad. The above by Dave Brown that is, tomorrow’s cartoon in the Independent. A remix of the first post-attack edition of Charlie Hebdo to be published tomorrow, whose cover I will not divulge here, but you can sneak a peek here. Normally, when a politician and person of power gets cartooned they buy it and hang it on the …

Thoughts on the Charlie Hebdo murders

Turgon on January 11, 2015, 6:45 pm | Readers 1449

This blog is purely a personal view (somewhat confessional) but I wondered if I was alone in it: The attacks on Charlie Hebdo were utterly appalling. The idea of terrorists attacking innocent defenceless people making a satirical cartoon is dreadful: a gross perversion of any decent religion or ideology. So why is it then that I am annoyed despite myself, not just about the attack, and I condemn it utterly, but also about the international outcry which has followed? Certainly …

Open Society at a crossroads in France

Paul Evans on January 10, 2015, 2:14 pm | Readers 1137

The attacks on Charlie Hebdo, followed by the targeting of Parisian Jews has laid the frail state of France’s ‘Open Society’ bare for all to see. Jewish businesses and synagogues are staying closed for their own safety and the far right Front National is, ironically, poised to benefit from an attack on free speech.

The home of the European Enlightenment is at a crossroads.

Je Suis Charlie

Pete Baker on January 7, 2015, 5:18 pm | Readers 1754

Via the BBC coverage of the attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in which 12 people were killed, an eloquent cartoon from the New Yorker. Pete Baker

A measured media response to the Charlie Hebdo atrocity

Kris Nixon (Belfast Barman) on January 7, 2015, 4:19 pm | Readers 3820

I utterly condemn the individuals who today attacked and killed innocent civilians at the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris today. It is horrific and unprovoked and I would if the opportunity presented, would happily press the “on” button for their electric chairs. Also, I am an atheist. I would like you to keep that in mind please throughout this piece. You may have seen a lot of people calling for a response to the killings, printing the cartoon on the …