The Independent adopted perhaps the most defiant front-page response to the Charlie Hebdo magazine massacre today with a full-page cartoon from Dave Brown offering a middle finger to the attackers.
The mood of the coverage across the UK national press today was one of solidarity with the French satirical magazine.
The Daily Mirror adopted the “Je Suis Charlie” slogan on its front page and leader column.
And the Daily Mail wrote in its leader: “On any other day, the Mail would feel only distaste for a French magazine with a history of sniggering at faiths held sacred by billions worldwide.
"But today, freedom lovers everywhere, whatever their religion, should proclaim the slogan of solidarity with the murderer staff of Charlie Hebdo: ‘Je suis Charlie!'”
The attack yesterday is believed to have killed nine editorial staff from the weekly magazine which has angered some Muslims by publishing cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad.
Two policemen and one other individual were killed by the masked gunman who walked into the magazine’s offices during its editorial conference yesterday morning.
Among the cartoonists to respond to the attack were Christian Adams and Matt in the Telegraph (right, above), Peter Brookes in The Times and Steve Bell in The Guardian.
From the top: Cartoons from The Guardian, Times and Telegraph
Writing in the FT Simon Schama said: “The horrifying carnage at Charlie Hebdo is a reminder if ever we needed it, that irreverence is a lifeblood of freedom. I suppose it is some sort of backhanded complement that the monsters behind the slaughter are so fearful of the lance of mirth that the only voice they have to muffle it is the sound of bullets.
“Yesterday was bloody attempt to wipe the smile of our faces. But though the self-righteous have killed the satirists they will never annihilate satire itself. Just the opposite. From now on, Charlie Hebdo will be the rallying point for those who cherish life and laughter over the death cult of sanctimonious gloom.”
Simon Jenkins, writing in The Guardian, said: “Yesterday’s French terrorists want…another twist in the thumbscrew of the surveillance state.
"They want the media to be told to back off. They want new laws, new controls. New additions to the agenda of illberalism…
“That is why the most effective response is to meet terrorism in its own terms. It is to refuse to be terrified. It is not to show fear, not to over react, not to over-publicise the aftermath.
“It is to treat each event as a passing accident of horror, and leave the perpetrator devoid of further satisfacton.”
Political cartoonist Martin Rowson told BBC News: “The best thing that can happen is to laugh these barbarians back into the dustbin of history. The reasons they have done what they have done is because they cannot bear to be laughed at."
The Charlie Hebdo attack was the front page story in a every UK national newspaper today:
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