Poll: 42 Percent Of French People Oppose Publishing Mohammed Cartoons
Trending News: To Publish Or Not To Publish? What France Thinks About Cartoon Images Of Mohammed
Why Is This Important?
Because it's better to trust the stats rather than to speculate.
Long Story Short
A poll published in France’s Journal du Dimanche (Sunday Journal) found that 42 percent of French people oppose the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed and half of them say there should be some limitations on free speech on the Internet and on social networks.
Long Story
There’s probably been hundreds of articles that speculate about what French people think about freedom of speech in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, but very little evidence as to what they are actually thinking until now. Despite millions marching en masse with posters saying “Je Suis Charlie” and a declaration from President Francois Hollande that freedom of expression is “non-negotiable”, an Ifop poll published in France’s Journal du Dimanche and reported by France 24 found that nearly half of French people - 42 percent - are actually against publishing cartoons depictions of the Prophet Mohammed.
But while many French people might be against the cartoons, a whole bunch of them still bought the latest edition of Charlie Hebdo with a teary Mohammed on the cover holding up a sign that says "Je Suis Charlie". The "journal irresonsable" went from printing 3 million copies to 5 million and now to 7 million.
Another intriguing statistic found in this poll is that France is 50-50 on whether there should be any limits on freedom of speech — something that has come under criticism by the International community as at least 69 people have been arrested for violating freedom of expression rules since the Charlie Hebdo attack, according to Amnesty International.
To publish or not to publish the cartoon depictions of Mohammed has been a conversation every news media in the world has been wrestling with. In the U.S., the New York Times was the only major paper not to publish the latest cover of Charlie Hebdo. Their argument is that even though the cartoons are relevant to the story, “Many Muslims consider publishing images of their prophet innately offensive and we have refrained from doing so,” said NYT Executive Editor Dean Baquet to the Huffington Post.
As evidenced by the protests that have erupted in some parts of the Arab world over the depictions of Mohammed, we know that any depiction — whether it's a smiling Mohammed or an angry one — pisses off many people. So why keep doing it?
Do you think news media and satirical publications like Charlie Hebdo or The Onion should publish whatever they feel like, regardless if people like it or not? Respond in the comments.
Own The Conversation
Ask The Big Question: Should news media publish images of the Prophet Mohammed in the future despite the risk of an attack similar to the one on Charlie Hebdo?Disrupt Your Feed: News media has a responsibility to publish what is necessary to the telling of the news, end of story.
Drop This Fact: There's no rule in the Koran explicitly prohibiting depictions of the Prophet Mohammed, according to this BBC News Magazine piece on the subject.