A liberal defence of freedom of speech and its implications for the Charlie Hebdo cartoons
Date
2017
Authors
Ronge, Angelika Simone
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Abstract
The cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad on the front cover of various issues of the French
satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, leading up to the 2015 terrorist attack have been seen by many to
be harmful and offensive. This report argues that, from a liberal perspective, the cartoonists did not
do anything morally wrong by publishing these cartoons. In fact, it is argued that the cartoonists
were morally justified in publishing these cartoons because they were protecting the liberal value of
free speech. I argue that both the act of publishing these cartoons, as well as the actual content of
these cartoons were morally justifiable. Arguments against the cartoons pertaining to both harm and
offence are proven to be unsound. Furthermore, when balancing the seriousness of the offence with
the reasonableness of the cartoons, it becomes clear that the offence is not as serious as some may
think.
Description
A Research Report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the
degree of Master of Arts, Applied Ethics for Professionals, September 2017
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Citation
Ronge, Angelika Simone (2017) A liberal defence of freedom of speech and its implications for the Charlie Hebdo cartoons, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, <https://hdl.handle.net/10539/24574>