Enemies of freedom
After Charlie Hebdo, the West invoked a credo of free speech to condemn Islamist attackers. But it’s all posturing, says Mick Hume. At every level of our society it is under threat
Giant pencils became a symbol of the cartoonists' defiance as world leaders gathered in Paris to throw their weight behind 'free speech'
Free speech is threatened on two fronts: occasionally by bullets, and every
day by buts.
Copenhagen, Denmark, February 15, 2015. A meeting in a cafe to discuss free
speech and blasphemy, just over a month after the massacre at the Paris
offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Inna Shevchenko of the Ukrainian feminist protest group Femen opens the
discussion, talking about her relationship with the cartoonist Charb —
Charlie Hebdo’s editor — and their shared insistence on their right of
freedom of expression (Femen are famous for protesting topless).
Shevchenko gets to the nub of the argument: “I realise that, every time we
talk about the activity of those people, there will always be, ‘Yes, it is
freedom of speech, but . . .’ And the turning point is ‘but’. Why do we
still say ‘but’ when we . . .”
At that precise moment her speech is ended by the sound of gunfire outside.
The timing
