Houston Chronicle on free speech: Defend to the death

2015-01-08T15:35:46-06:00

Houston Chronicle Editorial Originally published Jan. 7, 2015 The masked gunmen who attacked the Paris publication Charlie Hebdo yesterday stand for nothing more than the most horrid scheme that villainy can invent, and fanaticism put into practice. We borrow those words from Voltaire, the Enlightenment-era satirical writer. He has passed, but his ideals of free speech live on. So will those of Charlie Hebdo. The self-proclaimed "irresponsible newspaper" has long been the target of fundamentalist ire for its cartoons that portrayed the Prophet Muhammad in a preposterous light. Throughout the magazine's history, few have been safe from its extraordinary mockery. Catholic organizations have [...]