FILE. “We must always be vigilant, even 10 years later”: interview with Riss, the director of Charlie Hebdo

Charlie Hebdo's director Riss gave us an interview ten years after the attacks of January 7, 2015. The satirical newspaper pays tribute to the newspaper's eight victims in Charlie liberté. Le journal de leur vie (Les Échappés, 224 pages,  €29.90), a moving book.

You pay tribute to the victims of January 7 through their drawings, their works, a book in the form of an ode to freedom. Is it also a way of showing that this Islamist terrorism that wanted to silence them will never prevail? ?

That is what we hope in any case. And it is the least that Charlie Hebdo reaffirms ten years later, it would be problematic if we were not still as combative today.

What was that day of January 7, 2025, like, at the Charlie Hebdo editorial office, those last moments that you all shared together? ?

It was an editorial conference like any other, it was lively, it was joyful. Nothing foreshadowed what would emerge a few minutes later in the meeting. As we were leaving, that's when the two terrorists appeared.

What has imprinted your memory of the moments that followed, “those seconds when the bullets smack”, in your words ?

When you see someone in front of you who is armed and you have no escape route, you understand that you are going to die. I was convinced that I was living my last moments.

Riss had been seriously injured in the attack

Riss had been seriously injured in the shoulder in the Charlie Hebdo attack. On January 20, 2015, Riss gave this account of the events in Le Monde: “The door opened, a guy in black came out with a machine gun. He found himself face to face with Charb,” Riss recalls. “And then I saw that the others around me were trying to look right and left, maybe to find an exit. They were standing. I threw myself on the ground, face down. And from that moment on I only heard sounds. And the sounds in question were gunshots. No screams, no yells. Just gunshots”.

“The last image, he explained to us in September 2023, is of those who were with us. The last thing I saw of them. They were standing, alive, around us. So for me they remain standing, alive."

It’s a rather special feeling that you never get rid of.

It’s an experience that is imprinted on you and that is part of you for the rest of your life.

Today, in what conditions does Charlie Hebdo work? ?

It is a protected editorial office. We try to make sure that the cartoonists and editors feel good inside the newspaper. It is a place where they no longer have to wonder whether they are safe or not.

But we must always be vigilant, even ten years later.

You are the subject of a fatwa. This post-January 7, it is, for you, a life on the lookout ?

As far as I am concerned, yes, it is somewhat true. You should always take precautions.

You are never safe from an isolated act, you have to take into account the fact that people might want to do it again.

A bang in the street, a badly parked car in front of your house, these are all signs that can worry you, you explain in the book “Charlie Liberté”.

Yes, to take just these examples. It's a bit weird, but we try to reassure ourselves by being careful. Even if it can sometimes be a bit absurd, too bad…

“Charlie Liberté, the journal of their life”, a moving tribute book. The Escaped

Today, many security measures are taken at each of your travels. “A spider's web has been woven around us, in which we are prisoners,” you say. What have you had to give up?

I can't give details about security, but the newspaper has to continue and so there was a kind of pact, taking care of Charlie, that implies constraints as far as I'm concerned.

You can't be carefree, you have to be forward-thinking, you can't walk around the street with your nose in the wind, you can't be naive.

“Salman Rushdie believed he could get his old life back, he paid dearly for it,” you write. Does that mean you’re resigned to living locked in this bubble forever? ?

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It’s a bubble, but at the same time, you have to find your place in it to do what you want to do. That doesn’t stop me from doing a certain number of things.

Afterwards, in perpetuity, I don’t know. It could last a long time, but we must always remember that things can change.

Has Charlie’s editorial team been the subject of new threats?

Not recently. Two years ago, when we did cartoons about the Supreme Guide of Iran, people got angry…

When there are threats, it sets the tone for the times, it creates a climate. But are they necessarily real threats? That’s not certain.

We don’t see serious threats. They don’t speak out. Terrorist plans are never announced.

You mention Iran. Charlie Hebdo has now become a symbol of freedom far beyond our borders, to which many Iranian women in particular cling. What does that mean to you??

This shows that we must stand in solidarity with each other, not only in France, but with all the people who are confronted with this kind of arbitrariness in the world.

In some countries, when you talk to them about Charlie Hebdo, they understand what it means, because they too are confronted with religious intolerance. Unfortunately, there are many other places in the world where it expresses itself and oppresses people.

Charlie tries to participate in this solidarity, everything that can create a link in the world between the different categories of people attacked, whether they are journalists, police officers, or Jews.

What remains of the historic parades of January 11th?? Is France still Charlie??

On January 11, there were demonstrations of solidarity with the victims of the attack. Many marched, moreover, without knowing very well what Charlie Hebdo was.

Afterwards, when they discovered the newspaper, some, perhaps, did not like it too much. So saying “I am Charlie” does not necessarily mean “I read Charlie”.

It was a principled support for freedom of the press, of artists. The people who marched were attached to freedom of expression, of which Charlie is one actor among others, to the values ​​of the Republic, which is already very important, it is the essential.

How is Charlie doing today?? How has the broadcasting evolved since this tragedy??

Sales in 2015-2016 were very high, but they were atypical. It was linked to events, we knew very well that we would then return to more conventional sales, which correspond a little to what other newspapers are experiencing. It is the evolution of the paper press, it is another story…

In any case, the survival of the newspaper is not threatened today on the economic level ?

For the moment, it is going well. The newspaper is profitable and balanced.

Would you be ready, tomorrow, to republish the caricatures of Mohammed ?

We did it in 2020 for the trial, because we felt it was important to show the causes. To show that these drawings, ultimately, in hindsight, were not as terrible as what we wanted to say. Because the less you show things, the more people fantasize.

Should they be republished ? It depends on the context. There must be a good reason, there must be at least an educational virtue.

To explain what happened ten years ago, we must explain what was published almost twenty years ago, in 2006. So it is in this spirit that we could republish them. These are no longer current affairs cartoons, they have another dimension, these caricatures have entered history.

Behind all the big speeches, do you have the feeling that there is a form of self-censorship in France today? ? Even for the teaching profession, which is destitute, it is also difficult to approach these subjects.

We can understand that teachers are not always very comfortable, you did not do this job to find yourself in a situation of having to talk about all this. It is a bit new for teachers to be in this position, it is difficult.

I am not a specialist in national education, I will not pass judgment. But are teachers supported by their hierarchy, in this pedagogical work that they do to explain what secularism is? ? That is the question that must be asked.

You point out in your book, without naming it, the attitude of LFI. How do you read his strategy ?

I'm not going to go into political considerations, but when you're on the left and you know a little about its history, you're still a little disconcerted by the evolution of a fringe of the left. In my opinion, it's doomed to failure. That's not the future of the left.

Have we learned the lessons today from the attacks, which were followed by the assassination of Samuel Paty in 2020, then Dominique Bernard in 2023 ?

There is, however, a before and an after. We cannot say, today, that we are in the same situation as in 2013, 2014, when part of the political class, or leaders of this country, perhaps did not necessarily realize the threat posed by this Islamic religious fundamentalism.

Today, it is better identified. And a lot of work has been done by researchers, academics who support all of this.

We published the caricatures of Mohamed in 2006 because we thought that people did not realize the danger of Islamic fundamentalism. I think that others have taken over today. Other voices have been raised to warn. Everything is not perfect, there is still a lot of education to be done, but there is an awareness.

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