The Paris newspaper obscures Mohammed. What a struggle for freedom of speech

Parisein used a painting of the Prophet to illustrate an article, but took care to erase his face. A human error, or more simply human fear

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, born in Nigeria, who lives in the United States and is the most famous black writer in the world, in this year’s famous “Reith Lectures” for the BBC formulated a powerful indictment of Western culture. Adichie said there is “an epidemic of self-censorship”. “Would Salman Rushdie’s novel be published today? Probably not. Would it be written? Maybe not”. The Parisien, the great newspaper of the French capital, to illustrate an article explaining the dismissal of an academic who had shown medieval images of Mohammed in the United States, used a painting of the Prophet, but he took care to erase his face. The deputy director assures us that it is an “editor’s mistake”. A human error. Or maybe just human fear.