On Charlie Hebdo and Freedom of Speech

On one fateful day, January 7 2015,  two masked gunmen, said to be brothers, broke into the Charlie Hebdo office. Armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, they were able to shoot down eleven of the office’s residents, including the caretaker, the editor’s police bodyguard, editor Stephane Charbonnier along with four other editors, three other editorial staffs and a guest attending a meeting in the said building.

The Charlie Hebdo attack is said to be the second bloodiest crime against journalists, the first being the Maguindanao massacre which took at least 34 lives.

Freedom of speech is a basic human right that we have today. Or we should have today, rather. It is written down in law, with different countries having amendments about this, but are we really free to speak out whatever and whenever we want? Hours after the attack on the Charlie Hebdo, French President Francois Hollande released a statement saying that he vows to protect the freedom that the slain journalists represented. But since the beginning of the week, there have already been 54 people jailed for remarks made on the streets or on social media, which is an obvious display of double standards.

Are we really free? Do we really have the freedom to say whatever we desire?

With all these attacks happening to journalists and the like, it seems that “respecting others’ opinion” is nothing but a mere suggestion to some, especially to those who are highly protective of their beliefs and are willing to go great lengths to protect it. From simple discussions on the street to social media, you’re bound to run into someone who just doesn’t agree with whatever you have to say and will make sure you know it. Though we may view this as some kind of oppression, we may also look at it as their own version of freedom of speech. Although it is okay to voice out our own opinions, we must always remember that others also have the same right as ours. It is important to learn how to respect each others’ opinion while holding firm on our own ground.

Another issue that arose from this incident is the “#KillAllMuslims” trend that was first spotted in twitter, another display of misused supposed “freedom of speech”.  Why must we fight extremists with our own version of extremes? Social media has been a big part of spreading information, especially because everything is just one click away, but sometimes, it is used to abuse and oppress others. Seeing this trend made me question: are we really deserving of this so-called freedom? Especially when most of the time, we use it to offend and desecrate other beliefs, and in this case, races? In my opinion, no. As a society, we still have a long way to go before we can say that we deserve this vital right and we still have a long way to go before we can say that we will be able to use it well. 

photo source: http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/09/technology/anonymous-charlie-hebdo-terrorists/