Survivors’ Issue
On Wednesday this week – exactly a week to the day since twelve people were horrifically slain at the headquarters of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, in Paris – three million copies of the first edition to be printed since the attack went on sale in France, selling out within hours.
In Portugal, copies of what has now become known as the ‘survivors’ issue’ of Charlie Hebdo, edition 1178, also went on sale “as usual” on Friday (16 January).
Imported by company INP – International News Portugal, the number of copies brought to Portugal was also upped, to 500.
In a statement, INP said “revenue from the sales of this edition will be given to the Editor of Charlie Hebdo”, and that both itself and the publication’s distributor in Portugal, VASP, would be abdicating their sales margins.
Last Sunday Portugal’s Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho stood alongside scores of other world leaders to front an extraordinary show of solidarity on the streets of Paris.
More than 40 heads of state from Europe and beyond were joined by over one million people, in a gathering on the streets of Paris to call for peace. Overall, upwards of 3.7 million people joined demonstrations in and around France against the attacks.
Described by French officials as the largest demonstration of its kind in modern French history, the ‘march against terrorism’, as it has been dubbed, was replicated with gatherings in other cities worldwide, Lisbon and Oporto included.
PM joins Paris rally
Speaking at the rally in Paris last Sunday, Portugal’s Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho said: “Those who are against our way of being will find we have great conviction in the way we defend those values.”
The Portuguese PM added that the gathering was a “simple demonstration, peaceful, but of great strength and great cohesion among those – throughout the whole world, Europe included – who work towards a society that wants to be continuously freer, more democratic, more united and more fraternal.”
Passos Coelho explained that his participation in the march intended “to show all the Portuguese, who at this time are also affected by the tragedy that happened in Paris”, that it was “an attack on the foundations of freedom, values which are the basis of the construction of democracy.”
More killings ensued following the terrorist attack on the Charlie Hebdo headquarters, with another gunman shooting a police officer on 8 January and taking hostages the next day, at a kosher supermarket near the Porte de Vincennes.
In total 17 people were killed at five locations between 7 and 9 January, in addition to three suspects, and at least 22 others were injured, some critically.
Defiant Declaration
Meanwhile, Portugal’s State Secretary for Culture, Jorge Barreto Xavier, along with his counterparts from the 28 EU member states, signed a joint declaration “in defence of freedom of speech” following the attacks which saw 12 people killed at the Charlie Hebdo headquarters, many of them journalists and cartoonists.
Stating that “despite repeated death threats, [the journalists and cartoonists] chose to continue to express their freedom of thought and creativity with humour and talent”, the documents stresses that the victims “were murdered because they drew and published comic books.”
The declaration states that the “unspeakable act” intended to “silence forever” the magazine, and “to eliminate the publication of the newspaper, restricting the freedom to think, speak and create”, freedoms it described as “core values of European democracy; universal democratic values.”
Condemning the “barbaric nonsense that seeks to undermine our essential values in the most violent way”, the Ministers of Culture of the European Union said they were “unanimous in expressing our belief that artistic freedom and freedom of expression remain steadfast and immovable in the heart of our common European values.”
The declaration concludes by vowing “France and its allies in the European Union [will] safeguard these values and promote them worldwide” and will “defend the freedom of expression and the right of artists to create freely.”
President reaches out
From Belém, Portugal’s President Aníbal Cavaco Silva extended his condolences to his counterpart, French President François Hollande, and expressed his disdain at the attacks.
In a letter penned to President Hollande, the head of the Portuguese Republic said it was “with deep regret” that he learned of the attack perpetrated in Paris, “which deserves our total condemnation and rejection.”
“This act caused a high number of victims and hit a fundamental principle of our democracy, the freedom of the press”, he reflected.
Before signing his named, he wrote: “In this hour of grief and mourning, I convey to Your Excellency and to the French people, on behalf of the Portuguese people and myself, our feelings of deep regret and profound sympathy.”
Hundreds of people gathered in Oporto last week to pay homage to the victims of the Paris attacks.
Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Georges Wolinski, who died in the attack on the magazine’s headquarters, is said to have had “strong ties” to Oporto where he had presided over the jury of the PortoCartoon-World Festival since 2004.
A large canvas picture of Wolinski was hung from Oporto Town Hall’s highest tower as part of the ceremony lead by Oporto Mayor Rui Moreira, who when asked to comment on the gathering simply said, “Oporto has spoken.”