Prime Minister Tony Abbott says he "rather likes" the controversial cover of the latest edition of French magazine Charlie Hebdo, adding that "I believe in free speech - I absolutely believe in free speech."

Charlie Hebdo has released its first edition since the massacre of its staff by Islamist gunmen in Paris, featuring on the cover a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed shedding a tear under the banner headline "All is forgiven".

"I rather like that cartoon," Mr Abbott said today.

"I'm not sure that I would have liked everything that Charlie Hebdo produced, but this is a cartoon of the Prophet with a tear streaming down his face saying 'all is forgiven'.

"That spirit of forgiveness is what we need more and more in this rancorous modern world."

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The cartoon has been condemned by some in the Muslim community, with a Perth iman branding it offensive and Egypt's state-sponsored Islamic authority calling it an "an unjustified provocation against the feelings of 1.5 billion Muslims".

The Islamic Friendship Association of Australia's Keysar Trad is pictured on the front page of today's Australian newspaper with a copy of the image.

Sorry, this video has expired French Muslim leaders urge calm as Charlie Hebdo magazine hits newsstands

Explaining his decision to be photographed with the cartoon, Mr Trad told The World Today he was very upset by the attacks in France, and even more upset by the suggestion that they were in any way justifiable by Islamic teachings.

"That's a strong message to send out, that Islam is a religion of forgiveness and that devout Muslims are people who'll forgive and people who would really rather resort to dialogue rather than violence to deal with grievances and to deal with anything that might offend us."

Mr Trad said his gesture had the support of the majority of the Muslim community in Australia, but noted he had drawn some criticism from "certain sections of the community".

"This just shows that we have our work cut out, we have to work within the community and outside the community to try and make sure that our values are well understood.

"Sometimes when somebody is offended so strongly by something, they don't look at [the] details unfortunately."

Abbott rejects calls to revisit 18C laws

Mr Abbott has also rebuffed calls from some on his backbench to amend Australia's racial discrimination laws, saying the Government was "not going to proceed with it at this time".

In the wake of last week's terrorist attack on the magazine's Paris headquarters, two Liberal senators - Cory Bernardi and Dean Smith - called for the debate about free speech to be reopened.

Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson argued many of the cartoons published by Charlie Hebdo would be banned in Australia under existing legislation.

Before the last election, Mr Abbott promised to repeal Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act after columnist Andrew Bolt fell foul of the legislation.

A Federal Court judge ruled at least some fair-skinned Aboriginal people were reasonably likely to have been "offended, insulted, humiliated or intimidated" by imputations conveyed in published newspaper articles.

Last year, the Government announced it planned to amend the Act by scrapping the "offend, insult and humiliate" clause to ensure there was not a repeat of the Bolt case.

But after a backlash from ethnic groups, the Prime Minister abandoned the plan.

Mr Abbott told Fairfax radio today the Bolt case was "an aberration".

"I don't believe we are likely to see an Andrew Bolt-type prosecution again," he said.

"If we do, let's rethink things. But I believe that we do have very robust free speech in this country."

When asked if Charlie Hebdo style cartoons could have been published in Australia, he said opinions varied among members of the Human Rights Commission.

The Prime Minister said he "absolutely" believed in free speech but "people should use their right to free speech judiciously" and not "engage in casual insults".

"Nevertheless I accept that in the course of having a robust democracy a lot of people will be offended, a lot of people will be insulted," he said.

The Prime Minister said if any encouragement could be drawn from the recent tragedies in Paris and at Sydney's Martin Place, it was that "more and more Muslim people seem to be saying 'look, there is a value in diversity'.

"We do have to adopt the position of live and let live."

Journalists lost 'a significant amount of freedoms' in 2014

Mr Abbott has been taking to the airwaves since the Paris attacks to proclaim Islamists hate the West for being free, tolerant and open.

But the media in Australia now operates with fewer freedoms than it did last year, after the passage of the new national security laws, according to Chris Warren from the media union the MEAA.

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"We already lost a significant amount of freedoms in the second half of 2014 as a result of the first two tranches of national security law", Mr Warren said.

"We are now facing the third and most serious one, which is the data retention laws."

A Bill requiring mandatory retention of metadata is before Federal Parliament's intelligence committee.

Attorney-General George Brandis argues access to metadata is vital to investigate terrorism and organised crime, but the media union sees a different purpose.

"It will make it almost impossible for journalists to keep confidential sources genuinely confidential," Mr Warren said.

"Data retention will mean that any law enforcement body, including police investigating unauthorised releases of information, will be able to get the phone and social media and internet records of any journalist who writes a story relying on a confidential source."

Under the National Security Amendment Bill (no1) 2014, Australian journalists can now be jailed for up to five years for disclosing information on covert intelligence operations, and up to 10 years if that disclosure endangers lives.

Senator Brandis insists it is a law we need for our safety.

"This is not a law about journalism, it is not a law about journalists", he told ABC News 24 in October last year.

"It's a law of general application about the disclosure which ought not, for obvious reasons, to be disclosed."