Switzerland celebrated January 9th as a national day of mourning in memory of the victims of the fire disaster in Crans-Montana. There, 40 people died in a bar on New Year’s Eve, most of them young people, and more than 110 were injured, some seriously.
On the same day, the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo published a drawing by cartoonist Éric Salch on its front page. Two apparently charred skiers with bandages can be seen skiing down a slope. The illustration bears the provocative text: “Les brûlés font du ski – La comédie de l’année” (“The burned people go skiing – The comedy of the year”).
The drawing clearly refers to the fire disaster. The image satirically draws on the title of the French comedy film “Les Bronzés font du ski” (literally: The tanned people go skiing; German film title: “Sonne, Sex and Snowstorms”, 1979) – and immediately sparked a controversial debate.
Outrage and criminal charges in Switzerland
The Valais centrist National Councilor Benjamin Roduit told the news portal nau.cha ban on sales of Charlie Hebdo in Switzerland: “At a time when young victims are fighting for their survival, this is disgusting and unacceptable. It is a violation of human dignity. I have no words to describe this picture.”
The Swiss author Béatrice Riand and her husband Stéphane, a lawyer, have filed a criminal complaint with the cantonal public prosecutor’s office. They argue that Salch and Charlie Hebdo have violated Article 135 of the Swiss Criminal Code: It punishes the production and distribution of violent images that seriously violate human dignity.
Riand spoke on the Swiss broadcaster RTS (Radio Télévision Suisse): “I find this deeply disgusting. Freedom of expression has limits. People make fun of the victims. The question is: Does human dignity take precedence over freedom of expression or not?”
Victim’s lawyer Jean-Luc Addor described the motive to the news portal nau.ch as “deeply shocking because of its incredibly bad taste”, but he does not believe that a criminal complaint could be successful: “The sanction should come from the readers of this magazine.”
Angry comments on social media
Thousands of users also expressed outrage online. They reacted on social networks with angry or vomiting emojis. A comment on Instagram read: “Freedom of expression does not justify anything. (…) Be ashamed of what you do, you are pathetic.” Another comment said: “When you buried your dead, people cried with you… and when others mourn their children, they make a joke out of it. What a shame! Where is your humanity?”
The comment refers to the terrorist attack on the French satirical newspaper in 2015. At that time, the editorial office of Charlie Hebdo was attacked by Islamists: They shot twelve people, including five prominent cartoonists from the magazine’s editorial team and the editors. The satirists had drawn the hatred of Islamists because they had taken cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed from a Danish newspaper and printed them. Solidarity with Charlie Hebdo was great in Europe at the time.
Now the magazine has once again managed a sensational provocation. Hebdo editor-in-chief Gérard Biard defended the cartoon in the “Forum” program on RTS radio and television in western Switzerland: “Of course it can shock, but satire is also supposed to shock.” You don’t make fun of the victims, but show the absurdity of the tragedy.
Biard admitted that the illustrator had “gone pretty far,” but emphasized: “Dark humor doesn’t necessarily have to be pleasant.”
Satire: What is allowed?
The debate revolves around the central question: Is satire allowed to do anything? The Duden defines satire as “an art genre (literature, caricature, film) that criticizes people and events through exaggeration, irony and (biting) mockery, exposes them to ridicule, denounces conditions, and castigates them with sharp wit.”
The fact that the caricature of the fire disaster goes too far for many people is its aim and meaning. Proponents of the extreme satirical approach have in the past pointed to Charlie Hebdo’s long tradition of provocative, often taboo-breaking depictions – in the context of legislative freedom of the press and freedom of expression. French cartoonist Patrick Lamassoure, president of the international press cartoonist network Cartooning for Peace, told DW last year on the tenth anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo attack: “Everything I say and do can upset someone – anything. And the only limit can be the law, because we all agree on the law.”
Charlie Hebdo has since published another drawing by Salch. This time with two crossbowmen who kill the editorial team members. The headline: “Is it allowed to insult (blaspheme) Swiss people?” – “The editorial team wiped out by two crossbowmen.”
