Roundup: Italian newspapers assert "duty to inform" as key European value

Italian newspapers strongly condemned on Thursday the bloody attack against satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, and spoke out against any attempt to curb the media role in European societies.

Shocked by the killing of French colleagues and cartoonists, major journalists vowed they would not let themselves be subdued by what was perceived as an act of intimidation.

Turin-based La Stampa published a joint declaration from the "Europa" partnership of newspapers, which sounded as a defiant advocacy of the "duty to inform" against any threat.

"The attack on Charlie Hebdo...is not only an attack on the liberties of press and opinion. It is an attack against the fundamental values of our European democratic societies," the declaration reads.

"We will continue to inform, inquire, interview, comment, and draw on every subject that appears to us legitimate. We owe it to our readers, and to the memory of our assassinated colleagues," it said.

The same statement appeared in France's Le Monde, the Guardian in UK, the Suddeutsche Zeitung in Germany, El Pais in Spain, and the Gazeta Wyborcza in Poland.

La Repubblica's editor-in-chief Ezio Mauro wrote: "The assault on a weekly publication reminds us how newspapers are symbol and substance of that civilization we call the West."

"Newspapers are proof that different interpretations of the reality are possible in an open society, and the citizen can compare them," he added.

According to the editor of the Italian major daily, "terrorists confirmed there is no freedom without press, and that freedom stretches up to where it is necessary, up to the irreverence showed by Charlie Hebdo".

Horror and outrage were equally shared by Italian society and political institutions in the aftermath of the Paris attack, and both were reflected in the press.

"We witnessed the September 11 in Europe," Pierluigi Battista, columnist with the Milan-based Corriere della Sera, wrote.

The analyst warned this comparison should not appeared as exaggerated, despite the different death tolls, since both attacks targeted highly symbolic values that are the foundation of Western societies.

"In 2001, the target of the Twin Towers attack was the symbol of wealth and power, the American empire and the opulent and 'infidel' West," Battista wrote.

"Yesterday, by slaying the editorial staff of a satirical weekly, they targeted a symbol of freedom, of unorthodox opinion and sarcastic dissenting".

As a further sign of solidarity with French press, all Italian newspapers on Thursday published passionate cartoons that fellow cartoonists around the world had drawn and released on social media on Wednesday as a tribute to the slain colleagues of Charlie Hebdo.

Many underlined how self-criticism and "a continuous review of prevailing opinions" are crucial milestones in European societies, and exactly what radical individuals would aim to target.

"In the cultural war that radical Islamists have unleashed against our (European) lifestyle, criticism and irony, irreverence and plurality of values are indeed the Evil to eradicate" Battista with the Corriere della Sera wrote. Endit