Event which sparked a writers’ boycott and caused bitter divisions in the literary world goes ahead, with playwright Tom Stoppard calling for conciliation

Charlie Hebdo magazine received a controversial freedom of expression award from American PEN on Tuesday night despite the vocal opposition of many of its own high-profile members.



The French satirical weekly – eight of whose staff and four others were killed in January when its offices in Paris were attacked by Islamist gunmen – was given the PEN American Center’s Toni and James C Goodale Freedom of Expression Courage award to a standing ovation from novelists, journalists and publishers at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

The PEN gala came two days after two gunmen opened fire at a Texas competition to draw cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, and took place under heavy security, with uniformed police officers surrounding the museum.

Accepting the award, Charlie Hebdo’s editor-in-chief Gerard Biard said that the magazine’s shocking and sometimes offensive content helped combat extremists who would limit free speech. “Fear is the most powerful weapon they have,” he said. “Being here tonight we contribute to disarming them.”

Secularism was not the enemy of religion; it simply said that the state had no religion, Biard continued. “Being shocked is part of the democratic debate. Being shot is not,” he said.

The decision to honour Charlie Hebdo has bitterly divided the literary community, with over 200 members of PEN signing a letter that said: “there is a critical difference between staunchly supporting expression that violates the acceptable, and enthusiastically rewarding such expression.”

The magazine’s critics, including Peter Carey, Teju Cole and Rachel Kushner, who led a boycott of Tuesday’s event, said it that used racist stereotypes against the most marginalised members of French society, an accusation the editors reject.

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That protest caused heated debate, with Salman Rushdie – who lived under a fatwa from Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini for a decade for writing the supposedly blasphemous Satanic Verses – described those who opposed PEN’s award as “fellow travelers” of the Islamic extremists who murdered the Charlie Hebdo staff, and argued on Facebook: “I fear some old friendships will break on this wheel.”

More writers signed an open letter of protest, others stepped in to support PEN and Hebdo, and the literary world engaged in a on often ill-tempered discussion about the magazine’s treatment of minorities, the nature of hate speech, and whether an award can celebrate speech without endorsing the words spoken.

PEN president Andrew Solomon, who had earlier told the Guardian that “it’s a courage award, not a content award”, delivered a full-throated defense of the prize on Tuesday night.

“Few people are willing to put themselves in peril to ensure that we are all free what we believe,” Solomon said. “Tonights’s award reflects [Charlie Hebdo’s] refusal to accept the curtailment of speech through violence.

“We defend free speech above its content,” Solomon said. “Muteness is more toxic than speech. Silence equals death.”

Biard and Congolese author Alain Mabanckou told the audience that Charlie Hebdo was and always had been “anti-racist”, a reply to the criticism that the magazine portrayed French racial and religious minorities in a stereotypical way. “Charlie Hebdo has fought all forms of racism since its inception,” Biard said.

Mabanckou also argued that the magazine was simply received in France differently than in the US, and that misunderstandings had resulted from “cross-cultural exchanges: we all belong to one family and we’re all committed to freedom of expression”.

Playwright Tom Stoppard, given a separate award for his acclaimed works in theater and film – also made a conciliatory appeal. The organisation admirably “draws attention toward a tension of persecution”, he said. “If we end up beating each other up then neither of [us] will exist.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Jean-Baptiste Thoret, who received the prize with his colleague Briard, told Charlie Rose that Charlie Hebdo is “absolutely not the same” as the Texas contest because the magazine does not specifically target Islam.

Mostly, gala guests defended the award on principle – a point that the dissenting writers also believe in, if not to the same degree. All agreed that writers, artists and people everywhere should be able to speak freely, even when that their words may shock or offend. PEN executive director Suzanne Nossel reiterated this point, and called for all members and writers to “move on together in defence of freedom of expression”.

The gala also honoured Khadija Ismayilova, an investigative journalist imprisoned in Azerbaijan for her reporting on government corruption.