Al Jazeera English published this video item, entitled “France: Debates over free speech and secularism | The Listening Post” – below is their description.
A brutal murder and the Charlie Hebdo trial have people in France questioning freedom of expression again.
Contributors:
Pierre Henri Tavoillot – Professor of philosophy, Sorbonne University
Philippe Marliere – Professor of French and European politics, University College London
Rim-Sarah Aloune – Legal scholar and human rights researcher
Jocelyn Cesari – Professor of religion and politics, University of Birmingham
On our radar
The Nigerian army says it did not shoot at protesters, but there is a problem with their story – the evidence is all over the internet. Richard Gizbert speaks to producer Meenakshi Ravi about the contrasting narratives.
Murder in Malta: Daphne Caruana Galizia’s journalistic legacy
The Listening Post’s Flo Phillips on a reporter killed for the work she did – and how Daphne Caruana Galizia’s journalism continues to make news.
Contributors:
Matthew Caruana Galizia – Son of Daphne Caruana Galizia and investigative journalist
Manuel Delia – Author, Murder on the Malta Express; Blogger, Truth Be Told
Caroline Muscat – Founder, The Shift News
Mark Laurence Zammit – Former presenter, Xarabank
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Al Jazeera English YouTube Channel
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About This Source - Al Jazeera English
The video item below is a piece of English language content from Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera is a Qatari state-funded broadcaster based in Doha, Qatar, owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network.
On 7 January 2015 at about 11:30am CET local time, two brothers, Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, forced their way into the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Armed with rifles and other weapons, they killed 12 people and injured 11 others. The gunmen identified themselves as belonging to the terrorist group al-Qaeda.
Charlie Hebdo is a publication that courted controversy with satirical attacks on political and religious leaders. It published cartoons of Muhammad in 2012, forcing France to temporarily close embassies and schools in more than 20 countries amid fears of reprisals. Its offices were also firebombed in November 2011 after publishing a caricature of Muhammad on its cover.
France is a republic and the largest Western European nation. Through expansion and colonisation in the 17th and 18th centuries France became a great power and still retains territories around the world. It has a seat on the UN security council and is the world’s fourth most wealthy country with a high standard of living and strong cultural identity.
Malta, officially known as the Republic of Malta and formerly Melita, is a Southern European island country consisting of an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is Valletta. The official and national language is Maltese, which is descended from Sicilian Arabic that developed during the Emirate of Sicily, while English serves as the second official language. Italian and Sicilian also previously served as official and cultural languages.
Malta has been inhabited since approximately 5900 BC. Its location in the centre of the Mediterranean has historically given it great strategic importance as a naval base.
Malta became a British colony in 1813, and the British Parliament passed the Malta Independence Act in 1964, giving Malta independence from the United Kingdom as the State of Malta, with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state and queen. The country became a republic in 1974. It has been a member state of the Commonwealth of Nations and the United Nations since independence, and joined the European Union in 2004; it became part of the eurozone monetary union in 2008.
Catholicism is the state religion, but the Constitution of Malta guarantees freedom of conscience and religious worship.
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. This state of mind may, depending upon the jurisdiction, distinguish murder from other forms of unlawful homicide, such as manslaughter.
