“We are interested in the health and future of press cartoonists on the anniversary of an unprecedented massacre against press cartoonists. It’s still symptomatic…” This cartoonist, formerly of the satirical newspaper, is devastated and prefers not to talk about “the virtual disappearance of the profession” to leave room “for the memory of the victims” of the attack on January 7, 2015.
On this day, ten years ago, the editorial staff of Charlie Hebdo was decimated during an Islamist attack. In the days that followed, a surge of emotion and solidarity gripped the country. At the center of the demonstrations of support: the attachment to freedom of expression. “How is it possible to kill for a drawing? », We asked ourselves then. Ten years later, the situation of press cartoons is still just as difficult. HAS Charlie Hebdo and elsewhere.
“We don’t censor”
Coco, pillar of Charlie and designer for Liberationstill lives under police protection: “It’s not normal for journalists to live like this, our editorial staff is a bunker. But nothing has changed in our way of doing things: we don’t censor ourselves, ever. This is a crucial and vital point of the profession of press cartoonist. »
The journalist cannot consider her job today without thinking of those who died on January 7. “It’s a lot of loss. We constantly think about them, their work, what they wore, their talent and everything they transmitted. »
“The humor has lost”
On January 7, 2015, Charlie Hebdo has become the standard-bearer of a profession which, today, is suffering enormously. Whether for economic or political reasons, carrying out one’s work as a cartoonist or satirist has become even more difficult in 2025 than in 2015.
Kroll, you are a designer Eveningpoints out a tragic “loss of carelessness”: “Even if everything is not precisely the consequence of this Islamist attack, January 7, 2015 marks the beginning of new times in my profession. Gone forever is the carelessness with which we sometimes drew. Humor is a matter of collusion, and we thought we knew who we were talking to. It’s over. It’s as if the Kouachi brothers had shown anyone who is shocked by anything that they have the right to have it banned or take revenge. The humor has lost »
“The danger comes more and more from the dictatorship of the ultra-rich”
As painful and violent as the attack on Charlie Hebdo was, the threat weighing on press cartoonists today is disappearance, many of them analyze. “Today, the values of Charlie Hebdolike humor, satire, freedom of expression, ecology, secularism, feminism to name but a few, have never been so questioned. Perhaps because it is democracy itself which finds itself threatened by renewed obscurantist forces,” explains Riss, editorial director.
Joep Bertrams, designer for several media, notably The Green Amsterdammerin the Netherlands, sees censorship increasing: “The threat to freedom of expression is no longer the prerogative of fundamentalists today. The danger increasingly comes from the dictatorship of the ultra-rich. With their money, Elon Musk, Rupert Murdoch, Jeff Bezos, Vincent Bolloré and all these oligarchs control not only the media, but also the arts. Daesh has certainly made the cartoonists nervous and our loved ones a little more worried. But multi-billionaires have the power to exclude anything they don’t like; it is the end of freedom of expression and freedom of the press. »
Live and laugh
“In recent years, there have been dozens of newspapers that have fired their editorial cartoonists. The profession is on the verge of extinction. Apart from a few, who consider themselves lucky, most do not make a living from their work, explains this former Charlie Hebdo employee. But it’s indecent to talk about it today because losing your job is nothing compared to being murdered…”
Our Charlie Hebdo file
Riss chose to write an optimistic editorial in the special issue of Charlie Hebdo dedicated to this anniversary: “Satire has a virtue that has helped us get through these tragic years: optimism. If we want to laugh, it’s because we want to live. Laughter, irony, caricature are manifestations of optimism. No matter what happens, whether dramatic or happy, the urge to laugh will never go away. »