The Charlie Hebdo Affair and Transnational Solidarity in three Journalistic Battle(fields) of Latin America

Abstract

The censorious terrorist attack of January 7, 2015 was a global news event that was approached differently by media outlets within different journalistic paradigms, traditions, cultures, worldviews, and styles. Their perception of this event involved management of the clash between freedom of expression and respect for religious sentiments. This chapter explores how contextual realities—the specificities of media regimes, regulatory parameters, the geographies of freedom of expression, and the vicissitudes of the journalistic (battle)fields of Latin America—shaped editorial decisions whether to republish or not to republish Charlie Hebdo’s Je Suis Charlie Mohammed cartoon. It explores how newspapers and cartoonists in the journalistic battlefields of Mexico, Brazil, and Ecuador conceptualized Charlie Hebdo and its notoriously provocative parodies of religion. In the final analysis some media outlets in Latin America wrestled with the question “To be or not to be Charlie,” as understood in the politico-cultural geographies of the region.