One Meta-Media Event, Two Forms of Censorship: The Charlie Hebdo Affair in the United Kingdom and Turkey

• In Event: ICA Interactive Paper/Poster Session III
  In Interactive Paper Session: Global Communication and Social Change Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

This paper analyzed how media outlets from two different journalistic cultures and politico-cultural contexts handled and explained the dilemma of the republication or non-republication of Charlie Hebdo’s “Je Suis Charlie” Mohammed cartoon. Editorial decisions to republish or not to republish the cover reflected specific journalistic cultures. The dominant themes that emerged from textual analyses of editorial policy statements regarding republication or non-republication of the cartoon demonstrated that transnational journalistic solidarity and editorial independence are paradigmatic features that depend on cultural contexts. The British media have the editorial independence to decide to republish or not to republish the Mohammed cartoons, while editorial independence in Turkey is constrained by an Islamo-secular order where religious rites take precedence over human rights and freedom of expression.

Authors

• Lyombe S. Eko, Texas Tech U

• Lea C. Hellmueller, U of Houston