French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo has published a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad on the cover of its first issue since Islamic extremists killed 12 people at its offices.
The newspaper Liberation hosted Charlie Hebdo staff as they prepared the new issue and is handling an expected print run of 3m, which will be published in 16 languages and in 25 countries.
Liberation posted the Charlie Hebdo cover on Twitter late last night, ahead of the satirical magazine's publication tomorrow.
It shows a bearded man in a white turban with a tear streaming down his cheek, and holding a sign reading "Je suis Charlie". Overhead is the phrase "Tout est Pardonne" (All is Forgiven), which French media interpreted as meaning Muhammad is forgiving the cartoonists for lampooning him.
The eight-page edition of Charlie Hebdo is available in the UK via the website Newsstand, but it has currently suspended sales due to "extremely high demand".
Charlie Hebdo staffer Zineb El Rhazoui told the BBC: “It’s a little bit difficult to write about anything else other than the attack because it affects us greatly. We are writing about what happened, about the Je Suis Charlie campaign, about what happens next.
The cartoon was reproduced in The Independent print edition today, at the bottom of page eight, and on The Guardian website (with a warning for readers not to scroll down if they are likely to be offended).
So far other UK newspapers and broadcasters – including Mail Online, The Times, Sky News, Telegraph and BBC – have declined to publish it.
UPDATE: The Times published this week's Charlie Hebdo front page at around 2pm. An initial report, published at around 3am this morning, omitted the front-page image and prompted more than 250 comments from subscribers – most of them highly critical.
The BBC published the Charlie Hebdo front page during the 1pm news broadcast on BBC One.
The Financial Times has also published the current Charlie Hebdo front page online.
Sun columnist and former MP Louise Mensch today criticised the Telegraph for not publishing the cartoon.
The @Telegraph now isolated in refusing to print the #CharlieHebdo cartoons. If you subscribe to them, please cancel your subscription
— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) January 13, 2015
Charlie Hebdo’s previous offices were firebombed after a 2011 edition “guest-edited” by Muhammad which included an apparent depiction of the Prophet on the front page under the heading “100 lashes if you don’t die laughing”.
Until today The Times had been the only UK newspaper to publish this, or any other cartoon depiction of Muhammad by the magazine.
Buzzfeed and Huffington Post UK have both reproduced Muhammad cartoons from the magazine.
Some witnesses reported that the attackers at the paper's offices shouted: "We have avenged the prophet." Many Muslims believe all images of Muhammad are blasphemous.
Editor's comment: "Press Gazette has only linked to the front page in this story (and published it partially) mainly because the security and other considerations make this a far from straight-forward decision. We are a small part of a large publishing group and at present our decision is not to publish the image."
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