Controversial Charlie Hebdo magazine flies off the shelves
The first edition of satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo to be produced since last week’s Islamist attack on its offices has been flying off the shelves in France and around the world as people rush to show solidarity with the title.
In an act of defiance by the magazine’s surviving staff members, after five of their cartoonists and the editor were gunned down by Islamic terrorists, a cartoon depicting the prophet Muhammad is used for the front cover - defying hardline Muslims who denounce any representation of the figure.
A record breaking print run of 3m copies has been dispatched to newsstands in France and around the world according to the BBC, with long queues forming from the curious keen to see what all the fuss is about. Ordinarily just 60,000 copies would be produced and all proceeds will go toward victims families.
It follows the growth of the ‘Je suis Charlie’ movement as people come together to defy attempts to stifle free speech through acts of violence.
Amidst heightened security in France ABC News reported that controversial comedienne Diedonne was arrested for condoning terrorism in a Facebook post in which he said he felt like ‘Charlie Coulibaly’ – an amalgam of the magazine and the name of the killers whi stormed its offices.
Speaking to the media editor-in-chief Gerard Biard said: "We are happy to have done it and happy to have been able to do it, to have achieved it. It was tough. The front page... was complicated to put together, because it had to express something new, it had to say something relating to the event that we had to deal with."
Dubbed the survivors edition it has been produced in sixlanguages; including English, Arabic and Turkish.