Attack on the French Weekly Charlie Hebdo

Fundación LED (Libertad de Expresión + Democracia) strongly condemns the attack on the weekly Charlie Hebdo, in the City of Paris, France.

According to the French media, two masked terrorists attacked the media´s newsroom, killed over a dozen persons, among them Stephane Charbonnier, director of the newsroom, and wounded a great many people.

The assumption is that the motivations of the attack were of religious origin since the terrorists shouted pro Islam slogans while they carried out their attack and because Charlie Hebdo had been frequently threatened for publishing Mahoma caricatures.

This brutal attack cannot be justified in any way and should be condemned by the whole international community since it is a clear violation of the Human Rights set forth in different international treaties, such as freedom of expression and of press.

According to Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

Fundación LED sympathizes with the relatives and the dear ones of the fatal victims, with the wounded and with all the French people, and reiterates its commitment to defend and spread the fundamental principles of any democratic society.