Let ink flow, not blood
- Let ink flow, not blood
Nous sommes Charlie
The massacre of Charlie Hebdo’s journalists constitutes the gravest of attacks on our freedoms. This dark hour in the history of the world’s media has highlighted the extreme nature of the violence to which journalists are exposed when they dare to criticize or just question religion – an action often branded as “blasphemy” by fundamentalists.
We appeal for a broad campaign against all the predators of press freedom who use religious grounds to perpetrate horrific acts against journalists and cartoonists. When radical groups open fire with automatic weapons inside news organizations in France, Iraq or Pakistan, it is the public’s rights that are being targeted.
Extremists feel encouraged when certain government pursue draconian policies. When a website creator is sentenced to a thousand lashes in Saudi Arabia for “insulting Islam,” when an Afghan journalist narrowly avoids a death sentence for “blasphemy” or when countries campaign for an international ban on “defamation of religion,” our freedoms are in danger.
So that ink should flow instead of blood, we call on politicians, civil society representatives and religious leaders with a concern for freedom to resist all those who would limit our most fundamental rights.