1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites
Politics

Quadriga - The International Talk Show

42:33

This browser does not support the video element.

January 8, 2015

Paris Massacre - Freedom Under Attack

Among the dead are famous French cartoonists including Stephane Charbonnier, as well as two policemen.

Image: picture-alliance/dpa/K. Nietfeld

French authorities have declared the highest terror threat level for Paris. Leaders including Barack Obama, Angela Merkel, David Cameron and Vladimir Putin were quick to condemn the attack.

Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Paul Zinken

Satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo has often courted controversy provocative caricatures, including cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad which prompted outrage across the Muslim world. The paper's offices were firebombed in November 2011, after Muhammad appeared on the front cover. Editor-in-chief Charbonnier had received several death threats.

Image: Reuters/P. Wojazer

Is Europe facing a new level of extremist terror following the growth of Islamist violence in the Middle East?

And what is the right response to an attack like this? Should it prompt a fresh look at the limits of free speech?

Tell us what you think: send an e-mail to quadriga@dw.de

Image: DW

Géraldine Schwarz – is a French TV journalist based in Berlin. Following her studies at the Sorbonne, in Modern History and Current Affairs, she took up journalism, attending the “Centre de Formation des Journalistes” in Paris. There followed a stint at Bloomberg, also in the French capital. Lately, she has been working for the French news agency AFP and the French-German public TV channel ARTE, covering international news, German affairs as well as cultural matters.

Martina Sabra - has studied Islam and Islamic societies, and has worked as a journalist for more than 20 years in the Middle East and North Africa (including in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria). She has written mainly on topics such as migration, democratic development and human rights.

Michael Lüders – Born in Bremen, in 1959, Lüders studied Arabic literature in Damascus as well as Islamic studies, political science and publishing in Berlin. His dissertation focused on the Egyptian cinema. His works include documentaries for German public television and a long stint as Middle East correspondent for the “Die Zeit” newspaper. Lüders lives in Berlin, working as a political adviser, publicist and author on middle eastern issues.

Skip next section DW's Top Story

DW's Top Story

Skip next section More stories from DW