In Paris and beyond, people held rallies to mourn and commemorate the victims of the Wednesday terrorist attack on the office of French magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Demonstrators held signs that read "Je suis Charlie" (I am Charlie) and defended the freedom of the press.

Beautiful: across France, people rally in solidarity with #CharlieHebdo and freedom of speech pic.twitter.com/lMJg5uITm1 — Yair Rosenberg (@Yair_Rosenberg) January 7, 2015

At least 12 people, eight of whom were journalists, were killed in the attack. Many protesters held up pens as a symbol of the murdered journalists.

The editor of Charlie Hebdo, Stéphane Charbonnier, who was among the victims, said in 2012: "I don't feel as though I'm killing someone with a pen. I'm not putting lives at risk. When activists need a pretext to justify their violence, they always find it." The pens served as a commemoration of that sentiment, and the belief that the pen is mightier than the sword.

This is real strength: Parisians silently hold up pens in protest of #CharlieHebdo massacre via @oemoral @GoSruthi pic.twitter.com/Q7dI0ixlf4 — Laura Wells (@wellsla) January 7, 2015

Rallies were held throughout France and beyond:

France rallies after Charlie Hebdo attack. The placard reads: 'Charb died free' http://t.co/Th3ycElITf pic.twitter.com/Z4xltg6wyx — i100 (@thei100) January 7, 2015

Crowd at Trafalgar Square holding a vigil in solidarity with those killed today in the #ChalieHebdo attack pic.twitter.com/Eoc0XPxf3j — Blathnaid Healy (@blathnaidhealy) January 7, 2015