Glenn Greenwald has piped up in the light of the Charlie Hebdo Massacre. The lawyer and journalist, who became famous for his crucial role in the global surveillance disclosures, wrote a furious plea for an unrestricted freedom of press in his online magazine The Intercept.

In his well worth readable contribution he accuses the Western media in the case of a right to blasphemy of partinsanship. He contradicts the widespread view that the cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo were equal opportunity offenders. For this argument, he invokes also the notorious affair of the former Charlie Hebdo – cartoonist Siné who in 2008 was sacked by the editor because of anti-Semitic suggestions. 

Carlos Latuff (Source: The Intercept)

Glenn Greenwald: „When we originally discussed publishing this article to make these points, our intention was to commission two or three cartoonists to create cartoons that mock Judaism and malign sacred figures to Jews the way Charlie Hebdo did to Muslims. But that idea was thwarted by the fact that no mainstream western cartoonist would dare put their name on an anti-Jewish cartoon, even if done for satire purposes, because doing so would instantly and permanently destroy their career, at least. Anti-Islam and anti-Muslim commentary (and cartoons) are a dime a dozen in western media outlets; the taboo that is at least as strong, if not more so, are anti-Jewish images and words. Why aren’t Douthat, Chait, Yglesias and their like-minded free speech crusaders calling for publication of anti-Semitic material in solidarity, or as a means of standing up to this repression? Yes, it’s true that outlets like The New York Times will in rare instances publish such depictions, but only to document hateful bigotry and condemn it – not to publish it in `solidarity´ or because it deserves a serious and respectful airing.”