In Wake Of Charlie Hebdo Attack, Some Media Self-Censor Cartoons

In Wake Of Charlie Hebdo Attack, Some Media Self-Censor Cartoons

Following a deadly terror attack Wednesday morning on the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical French newspaper known for lampooning religion with caricature-based cartoons, many outlets have censored their coverage of the publication's depictions of the Prophet Muhammad.

The New York Daily News opted to obscure the front page of a Charlie Hebdo publication in its coverage of the attack. It blurred a cartoon from a 2011 Getty photo of Charlie Hebdo Editor Stéphane "Charb" Charbonnier, who was among those killed in Wednesday's attack. The Daily News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Telegraph took a similar approach and blurred the cover of a Charlie Hebdo paper in its live blog, then ultimately removed the image entirely, reports Politico.

The photo in question, with blurred cover:

How the terrorists win: @Telegraph is now blurring the cover Mohammed cartoon of #CharlieHebdo in its reporting pic.twitter.com/DffGzIrQZI

— Yair Rosenberg (@Yair_Rosenberg) January 7, 2015

A second photo on The Telegraph, in which Charbonnier poses with an edition of Charlie Hebdo, is tightly cropped:

CNN has also chosen not to show any Charlie Hebdo cartoons that could offend Muslims. In a memo sent to staff Wednesday afternoon, CNN senior editorial director Richard Griffiths encouraged reporters to instead "verbally describe the cartoons in detail," a separate Politico report notes.

"This is key to understanding the nature of the attack on the magazine and the tension between free expression and respect for religion," Griffiths wrote, explaining the network's decision.

A wire image of Stephane Charbonnier released by the Associated Press also does not include the Charlie Hebdo cover. A spokesman for the AP told The Huffington Post the move in line with the organization's "longstanding policy that we do not move deliberately provocative images on the wire."

On the opposite end of the spectrum, some outlets published multiple images in their entirety. The Daily Beast compiled a gallery of the "16 Most Shocking Hebdo Covers" with similar coverage on The Huffington Post.

In an interview with Deutsche Welle, Tim Wolff, the editor of Titanic (a German publication known for publishing controversial content similar to Charlie Hebdo), stated the publication intended to continue producing satire, going so far as to call it "a human right."

"If these attacks are the work of Islamists, then it makes satire even more relevant," Wolff said of Wednesday's shootings. "Following such attacks, there should be more satire, and this will be the case for our magazine as well."

Michael Calderone contributed to this report.

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