MUCH has been said and much more written about the murderous attack on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo last week. The bloody slaughter was far from isolated, there have been over 70 journalists killed in the line of duty in the last year, the majority of those in Syria.

What singled the Charlie Hebdo attack out is that it was seen as a direct assault on freedom of speech and, of course, it was.

Staff at the magazine had already been warned they were in danger from extremists but defied the threats to continue in the job they obviously loved and felt very strongly about.

The magazine's particular style, at times sexually crude satire, is not my thing. It wouldn't be something I'd buy, read or find funny.

That said, its right to exist is unequivocal. Those who sought to damage or close down Charlie Hebdo have by their murderous actions turned a small niche publication into something that is now instantly, globally recognised.

Charlie Hebdo, which usually prints 60,000 copies, has a five million print run this week with the first edition selling out. Closer to home and par for the course in Northern Ireland people manage to make everything that happens in the world about them and us.

Let's be clear. Expressing disgust at the murder of French cartoonists and policemen does not mean you don't care about the murder of Palestinian children, or Pakistani children, or Syrian children or for that matter Irish children murdered during our own years of conflict.

Some on the left took to social networking to engage in the kind of hierarchy of victims politics we're always warned to avoid here in the north; "Aye, it's awful but ...".

While on the right those who supported and continue to support the loyalists responsible for the murder of journalist Martin O'Hagan used it as an opportunity to compare Islamic terror groups to the IRA who in the past also targeted newspaper offices.

The Sunday World journalist's murder may seem a far off event, but threats to working reporters in Northern Ireland continue.

I know of several - myself included - who have have been warned by police that they are under threat from various paramilitary groups in recent times.

That should never prevent us doing our job and, in my case, I took it as a sign I was rattling the right cages.

Whether it is the appalling treatment of women by radical Islam, or the abuse of vulnerable children in the care of the Catholic Church, or right wing Christians discriminating against gay men, or the slaughter of Palestinians by Jewish Israelis, when religion is the cause of a problem it should be confronted.

For journalists to turn a blind eye to such injustices is a disservice to our profession. Cartoons as form of expression can on the face of it sound childlike and frivolous. However, you've only to look at the back catalogue of work of our own Ian Knox to see the power political satire can wield as a form of expression.

Whether those who attacked Paris last week intended it or not, the shooting will have a lasting impact on freedom of speech as governments use the threat to impose ever more Draconian anti-terror laws.

The result of laws designed to curtail and restrict the freedom of citizens - specifically in this case citizens of a particular religion - will in turn further radicalise and alienate young Muslims.

In much the same way internment without trial acted as a rallying call to young nationalists, beefed up terror laws curtailing the right to freedom of expression are creating a new generation of angry young men.

The brother of murdered French police officer Ahmed Merabet - a Muslim who died trying to protect the lives of people working in a magazine that mocked his faith - paid tribute to him this week.

Malek Merabet also appealed for "unity and tolerance" in the wake of the attack. We should hold him and his hero brother up as a true representation of Islam rather than those who kill in the name of Allah.