PEN Vs GUN
By Kartik Lokhande The terror attack on French satirical newspaper ‘Charlie Hebdo’ has once again pushed to the centre-stage the debate over freedom of press vis-a-vis intolerance. The incident has evoked a wide range of expressions from extreme liberals, selective liberals, liberal-yet-cautious, angered, radicals and mere observers. Interestingly, the tone of almost every one of these sections, except for radicals that are more inclined towards terrorists, is that no art should ever be ‘countered’ with killings. And, here, the purpose of perpetrators of the attack on ‘Charlie Hebdo’ stands defeated. In fact, the killings have evoked such sharp reactions from across the world that those wielding the gun to silence the media are under an unprecedented torrent of criticism and condemnation. Even the cartoonists from countries like Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine have condemned Islamic terrorists (belonging to Yemeni arm of Al Qaeda, according to reports of Al Jazeera) ...