Will Paris attack have 'chilling effect' on satire?

Where do journalists and cartoonists draw the line on satire?

The sound of gunfire in the newsroom of a Paris satirical weekly echoed around the world of satire on Wednesday, but those who make their living at mockery vowed to press on.

Possibly because of the time difference, it was the European satire press that responded first to the attack on Charlie Hebdo — in which 12 people were killed — with vows not to let the murder of journalists and cartoonists chill their free-press right to make fun.

But soon, as the news spread, American satirists, journalists, humorists and comedians were joining in the condemnations and clarion calls for freedom.

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"Humor is the canary in the coal mine of free speech," said Bob Mankoff, cartoon editor of The New Yorker, where some of the most admired humor in America is published regularly.

"We all have to stand up today, whether we are humorists or not, whether we agree with Charlie Hebdo or not, and say, we are all Charlie Hebdo, it's the only position to take," says Mankoff.

On Twitter, New Yorker fans recirculated a 2012 cartoon from a blog post from Mankoff.

"Please enjoy this culturally, ethnically, religiously, and politically correct cartoon responsibly. Thank you," read the cartoon's caption — above an empty box.

Comedian Lizz Winstead, a co-creator of one of America's premier satirical programs, The Daily Show, tweeted her shock.

One of America's most prominent satirists, Garry Trudeau, declined to comment, but that didn't stop his admirers on Twitter.

If the terrorists thought they could shut down or shut up a newspaper because of its cartoons, they were wrong, says Mark Fiore, an American self-syndicated political cartoonist and animator based in San Francisco.

"It's only going to cause more cartooning to be directed their way," Fiore said, noting that the attack shows "the strength of cartooning" in political persuasion.

Fiore said Charlie Hebdo's aggressive stance on religious extremism shows that "free speech has to be pretty black and white if we want it to survive. We can't hedge."

Before he'd heard the news on Wednesday, he said, he'd been planning to pen an animation about the scandal surrounding Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise's 2002 speech to white supremacists, whom Fiore called "Christian right-wing crazies."

"That's going to be put on hold because of Islamic crazies," he said.

Jack Ohman, editorial cartoonist for The Sacramento Bee and president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, called it the "worst journalism tragedy in my lifetime."

"The national revulsion in the cartooning community is overwhelming," he said. "The only way we're going to be able to fight a terrorist war on free expression is to have more free expression."

At the Chicago Tribune, editorial cartoonist Scott Stantis predicted nothing would change as far as America's cartooning community is concerned. Most American editorial cartoonists don't do "provocative things just to be provocative, it's provocative with a point," he said.

Still, the news from Paris is disquieting, especially since the rhetoric and rancor in America has grown more heated in recent years, he said, pointing to the death threats he's gotten over the years. He talks about this in a column tomorrow in the Trib.

"Three of my four grandparents were from France. I am French, I am a cartoonist and I am afraid," he wrote. "Yet, as I mentioned, this fear is not new. For anyone who attempts to speak truth to power or dares to confront the current paradigm, there are those who will take a violent umbrage....So we take a deep breath and plunge forward. Knowing the dangers but confident in the knowledge that what we do is important and worth the risk."

In Europe, where there is no general, codified First Amendment, there were condemnations and ringing endorsements of the right to mock nonetheless.

"Satire is a human right," declared Tim Wolff, editor-in-chief of Germany's most popular satirical publication, Titanic, according to an interview in DW, a German publication. Satire becomes "even more relevant" after attack like this, he added.

"Of course, on the personal level, we are scared when we hear about such violence," he said. "However, as a satirist, we are beholden to the principle that every human being has the right to be parodied. This should not stop just because of some idiots who go around shooting."

Satirists in Britain, where satiric publications and commentary are a tradition and pointed mockery is widely admired, also railed at the attack.

"I am appalled and shocked by this horrific attack — a murderous attack on free speech in the heart of Europe," said Private Eye editor Ian Hislop said in a statement. "(The victims) paid a very high price for exercising their comic liberty.Very little seems funny today."

Brendan O'Neill, editor of Spiked, a U.K.-based online magazine, called the attack "barbaric" and bemoaned "a dark day for Europe."

"All of us should feel assaulted by this massacre, for it is designed to chill us and make us cower, to make us censor ourselves or else suffer the consequences," he wrote. He condemned "the modern trend" to extinguish commentary, art or literature that offends small groups of people.

"The best, most civilized response to this barbaric act is to promise that we will defend freedom of speech every time it is threatened, stop kowtowing to the offended, and stand up to every mob, campaign group, thug and gunman that think they have the right to silence others," O'Neill declared.

Salman Rushdie, the British novelist once under a death-threat fatwa, also issued a statement defending satire.

"I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire, which has always been a force for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity," he said.

WikiLeaks' Julian Assange tweeted his support:

Flemming Rose, the editor of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, threatened after it published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2005, said in an interview published on the Daily Beast that the attack in Paris "sent a shiver down my spine." He said Europe over the last 10 years has been confronted repeatedly with violence in response to something published or said or filmed.

"Here at Jyllands-Posten we live in fear," Rose said. "There have been numerous episodes that deal with how the handling of Islam and violence. But Charlie has insisted on their right to make satire, and now they've paid the highest price for that."

Contributing: Greg Toppo