On the 7th of January 2015, two Islamist terrorists, armed with Kalashnikovs, burst into the offices of Charlie Hebdo.

Twelve people were murdered, eight of them writers and cartoonists at the left-wing satirical newspaper.

Charlie's supposed crime, it had published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

The massacre sparked outpourings of solidarity, but also a cowardly censorious backlash. Many decried the killings, but decried Charlie's supposed provocations too.

Ten years on from the massacre, Spiked went to Paris to meet with Gerard B.R., Charlie's editor-in-chief.

We discussed the attack, the fight for free speech, and the crucial importance of courage.

Gerard, thank you so much for your time.

It's coming up to the 10-year anniversary of the terrible Charlie Hebdo attacks.

But first of all, I'd like to ask you a little bit about the origins

and the politics of Charlie Hebdo because certainly internationally, there's a lot of

ignorance, possibly willful ignorance about what you really, really stand for. So could you tell me

a bit about the origins of Charlie and when you first got involved?

Charlie Hebdo has a long history.

It's a newspaper that's over 50 years old, which was founded in the 1960s.

It was founded by Francois Kavanaugh and Professor Sharon,

because they wanted to make a newspaper in which they could express their freedom

and read things they couldn't read elsewhere. This has always been in the space. on because they wanted to make a newspaper in which they could express their freedom and

read things they couldn't read elsewhere.

This has always been in the spirit of Charlie Hebdo.

That's to say, to try to create something, to produce, whether through drawings, through

texts or ideas, to produce the things you don't see anywhere else,

including in the tone.

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