Remembrance

Some, such as the UK's Telegraph and the New York Post, published photos of Charlie Hebdo's editor Stephane Charbonnier holding one of the offending front-page cartoons, but either cropped the photo or blurred part of the image. The Associated Press distributed no images that included the cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, in keeping with its longstanding policy on offensive images. "We've taken the view that we don't want to publish hate speech or spectacles that offend, provoke or intimidate, or anything that desecrates religious symbols or angers people along religious or ethnic lines", said Santiago Lyon, a vice president of the AP and its director of photography, the Washington Post reported. "We don't feel that's useful." He said it was not a capitulation to terrorist threats, but a policy covering all creeds and situations. Later in the day it appeared the AP had also removed from distribution images of the controversial Andres Serrano artwork Piss Christ, after the conservative newspaper The Washington Examiner questioned the apparent double standard. The Washington Post quoted its own executive editor, Martin Baron, as saying the Post avoids publication of material "that is pointedly, deliberately, or needlessly offensive to members of religious groups" and would continue to apply those principles in the wake of the Paris atrocity. But the Post's editorial page, which operates with independent editorial management, decided to publish one of the cartoons in Thursday's editions. It has selected the front page published before Charlie Hebdowas firebombed in 2011, which declared the following week's edition would be guest-edited by the Prophet Muhammad, who was depicted, with the slogan "100 Lashes If You Don't Die Laughing". "I think seeing the cover will help readers understand what this is all about", said Fred Hiatt, The Post's editorial editor. The Sydney Morning Herald's news director, Judith Whelan, said she had decided not to run any of the cartoons depicting the Prophet, not for fear for the safety of staff but because it would offend a segment of the paper's readership. "I defend Charlie Hebdo's right to publish the cartoons, that does not mean we have to," she said. On Fox News commentators appeared throughout the day criticising censorship and self-censorship, though Fox aired none of the images. In fact none of the major American networks or cable channels were showing images of the cartoons in their coverage through the day after the shootings. 

An NBC News spokesperson told Buzzfeed, "Our NBC News Group Standards team has sent guidance to NBC News, MSNBC, and CNBC not to show headlines or cartoons that could be viewed as insensitive or offensive". A CNN memo obtained by Politico said, "Although we are not at this time showing the Charlie Hebdo cartoons of the Prophet considered offensive by many Muslims, platforms are encouraged to verbally describe the cartoons in detail". It stated that photos of the cartoons held by demonstrators during protesters are "OK, if shot wide". On social media many people shared the images as an act of defiance. Buzzfeed and the Huffington Post published some of the offending cartoons, with the latter headlining its compilation of seven caricatures of Muhammad, "These Are the Charlie Hebdo Cartoons That Terrorists Thought Were Worth Killing Over".  In the last of them Muhammad is depicted kneeling in the sand before a masked terrorist about to behead him with a knife under the heading "If the Prophet was resurrected". Muhammad is saying to the terrorist, "I am the Prophet, fool!". He replies, "Shut up, infidel".