Charlie Hebdo journalists defend award of literary prize

Critics of a literary prize awarded to French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo are “confused”, say two journalists who survived an attack on the magazine’s staff in January.

Charlie Hebdo journalists are brushing off controversy surrounding a literary association's decision to award the magazine a top prize for freedom Reuters/Eric Gaillard

Charlie Hebdo is to be honoured by the American branch of the PEN authors association with the Freedom of Expression Courage Prize in a ceremony in New York on 5 May.

More than 150 writers have pulled out of the event, saying the publication’s caricatures depicting the Prophet Muhammed are offensive to France’s minority populations which are already marginalised and victimised.

Twelve people were killed in the January attack by two gunmen who stormed an editorial meeting in Paris to take revenge for the cartoons.

The writers and editors pulling out of the annual PEN gala include Australia's Peter Carey and American novelist Joyce Carol Oates.

Jean-Baptiste Thoret, Charlie Hebdo’s film critic, and editor-in-chief Gerard Biard have told French news agency AFP that those in protest do not understand what the prize stands for.

"Maybe there is a little misunderstanding. I guess they imagine this award was given to Charlie Hebdo regarding its content," Thoret told AFP in Washington. "There is confusion. It's an award given on the principle of freedom of speech."

Biard also brushed off criticism of the award.

“If they think PEN is no longer about protecting free expression, why don't they leave it?"

Thoret pointed out that only 11 of 500 Charlie Hebdo cover stories published before the attack dealt with Islam.

"That's the reality," he said. "We have never publish racist cartoons. Historically, we are an anti-racist magazine. It's in our DNA.

"Mohammed is an icon, a symbol. We at Charlie Hebdo are against icons, like we are against soccer," he said.

Earlier in the week, Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Renald Luzier, known as Luz, told French magazine Inrocks that he would no longer draw cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

"I've gotten tired of [drawing Muhammad], just like I got tired of drawing [former French president Nicolas] Sarkozy. I'm not going to spend my life drawing them," said Luz, who designed the front page of the magazine that appeared after the Paris attacks.