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In France, Fuzziness on Free Speech

Ruth Marcus on

WASHINGTON -- I would have thought the French had a better sense of irony.

One day they are marching in defiant support of offensive speech. The next they are threatening to prosecute people for it.

Dieudonne M'bala M'bala, a distinctly unfunny and anti-Semitic comedian, was arrested and charged with "incitement of terrorism" after a Facebook post that seemed to express sympathy for the gunman who killed four people at a Paris kosher supermarket.

Dieudonne's offense was writing, "I feel like Charlie Coulibaly," a mash-up of Charlie Hebdo and Amedy Coulibaly, the supermarket killer. The New York Times reported that as many as 100 people are under investigation by French officials for making or posting comments that support or try to justify terrorism. 

Still, this is not so much a case of rank hypocrisy as an illustration of the intellectual and emotional complexity of the debate over what should happen when free speech collides with religious sensibilities or common decency.

It is easy, in the aftermath of the horrific killings, to announce, "Je suis Charlie." Indeed, it is appropriate. When writers and artists are murdered for expressing themselves, standing with them is the right response. So is reproducing their work. Taking the risk of offending readers and exposing employees to danger is not an easy choice, but the newspaper editors who reprinted the Charlie Hebdo cartoons made the correct decision.

 

But there is nothing especially attractive or heroic about giving gratuitous insult, which seems to have been the basic business of Charlie Hebdo. The magazine was, and remains, a cross-denominational offender, aiming its juvenile barbs at any and all religions.

Its goal -- and it no doubt succeeded -- was to transgress and provoke, as with cartoons that showed Muhammad naked. Penis drawings were a specialty, whether of the prophet or the French president.

The cover of the post-massacre issue, with its depiction of Muhammad shedding a tear, was uncharacteristically tasteful. Inside, however, was what The Independent of Britain described as "a festival of bad taste, including a cartoon of a masturbating nun and the Pope dressed as a mafia boss."

Of course, Charlie Hebdo should have the right to print whatever offensive product it wants, without fear of either violence or government interference. That is different from saying we should admire the magazine for it.

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