A sign which translates as "Charlie Hebdo - Sold Out" is displayed outside a newsagents in Dunkirk, France on January 14, 2015 as the latest edition of the French satirical weekly goes on sale. PHOTO:AFP
PARIS, FRANCE: Copies of the latest edition of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, which sold out within hours across France on Wednesday, are being offered on eBay for thousands of euros.
A total of 700,000 issues of the magazine, which was the victim of a deadly killing a week ago, were distributed early Wednesday but other copies of the magazine will be made available for sale throughout the week. The weekly, which was struggling to sell its 60,000 copies a week ago, has launched an extended print run that will eventually reach five million copies.
On eBay, one vendor listed the new Charlie Hebdo issues at 15,000 euros ($17,680) for immediate purchase, compared to the cover price of just three euros. Paris-based media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontieres) slammed the apparent opportunism as "absolutely indecent."
Overwhelming demand saw copies sold out across France,the distributors said. "The editor decided this morning to increase the print run to five million," said Veronique Faujour, head of press distribution firm MLP. That is two million more copies than initially planned in the wake of the terrorist attack that decimated the magazine's staff last week. Copies were also to be put on sale in other countries around the world later this week.
The new issue of Charlie Hebdo follows an attack by gunmen last week at the magazine's office in Paris which killed 12 people.
Two black-clad gunmen wielding Kalashnikovs burst into Charlie Hebdo's editorial meeting at its Paris offices, spraying bullets in an attack that left a total of 12 people dead.
It was the start of three days of terror that gripped Paris as police hunted the gunmen, and an accomplice to the killers emerged, gunning down a policewoman before taking hostages at a Jewish supermarket where another four people died.
Muslims consider images of the Prophet, not least ones satirising him, to be blasphemous under Islam. Charlie Hebdo had angered Muslims in the past by printing cartoons lampooning the Prophet and Islam.
On Twitter, the hashtag #JaiMonCharlie (I have my Charlie) was trending in France for those who managed to get a copy.
Turkish daily prints Charlie Hebdo cartoons
Leading Turkish daily Cumhuriyet on Wednesday printed excerpts from the first issue of Charlie Hebdo amid Muslim backlash.
Cumhuriyet, which strongly opposes President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was the sole publication in a majority Muslim country to reproduce cartoons and articles from the special Charlie Hebdo issue.
Along with a Charlie Hebdo editorial about how it would not give into the attacks, the excerpts in Cumhuriyet included cartoons satirising Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram and IS.
Cumhuriyet editor-in-chief Utku Cakirozer described the printing of the four-page pull-out as a display of solidarity with Charlie Hebdo, recalling that several reporters from his paper had been murdered in the past.
"We took care to show the maximum respect for religious sensibility and freedom of belief in our society, not just among Muslims, but Christians, Jews, and those who don't believe," he told a news conference in Istanbul.
COMMENTS (10)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
@Pakistani: Good.You take your revenge and leave that country,place enmasse.After all it is not your country and you are economic refugees in a Christian country!!How you feel if some Christians or Hindus come to your Islamic country and challenge your beliefs...!!Charlie Hebdo has also ridiculed Christians,Jews,Hindus in the past but they have just laughed at it!!You only made it to increase copies from 60,000 to 60,00,000 - 100 times more.....hahahahaha!!!
This is not freedom of speech but a freedom to selectively defame the group you hate. The increased sale shows the number of such hate mongers in those countries.
@Pradeep: Trust me...its not a troll at all...this is a logical fact which now has been acknowledged by sensible people like the Pope as well...Secondly, what you have said is easier when coming from a person such as you who is not a muslim... going by what you have said, If anyone makes a cartoon of one of the Hindu Deities such as Hanuman etc and depict him to be a rapist, the Hindus all over the world should not and would not show any reaction at all....which would not be true
@Pakistani: FIrst off I think you are trolling... trying get a reaction from readers of your comments. Still, I am going to try.
Your comparison is a false equivalency. If your father is an honest government official but part of an oppressive tyrannical regime and someone calls him or his group a tyrant you cannot overreact by killing the person who called your father so. You can react personally only when you are insulted/attacked in your personal capacity i.e. when your father as a person/individual is insulted. Muhammed was satirized in the context of today's extremist ideology and as a symbol of today's muslims. Muhammed the person, Muhammed the human was not insulted. What was satirized was the vehemence and intolerance of some Muslims to Muhammed's imagery.
No where in Charlie Hebdo was abuse against a religion. I request every civilized human to get a digital copy of Charlie Hebdo.
@Pakistani:
We saw your generocity when China banned Raman and force fed people during the month and recently when it banned Burqa.
You are only brave and generous with a powerful country like China which gives you money and food. But, France, which doesn't do either, this generocty vanishes.
Paisa aaya, Uighur Musims bhaad me gaye.
@Mohammad Ali Siddiqui: The world leaders did not walk hand in hand not just for 12 non-muslims,but it was for freedom of speech. Freedom to speak freely is valued more than anything in the western world. It is the freedom of speech that made West progressive and when terrorists attack freedom of speech, the entire west will stand up hand in hand. The Charlie Hebdo magazine was sold out not because people loved the magazine but to show support for freedom of expression.
It's time for Charlie Hebdo to mint money.
Uncounted Muslims have been killed around the world, it went unnoticed by the Western leaders, but when 12 Charlie Hebdo non-Muslims cartoonists and employees got killed by the gunmen, the entire Western leaders took notice, went to rally, hand in hand, as the lives of 12 non-Muslims were more precious than uncounted Muslims who died in various conflicts in Middle Eastern Countries and occupied Jammu & Kashmir.
After all, the West talk about humanity, democracy, freedom of speech, but the deaths of Muslims are not at all important to them.
The hatred against the Muslims by non-Muslims will ever remain till the last day of the world, as if, Muslims are slaves of non-Muslims by birth.
We muslims are very benevolent people. We turn ashes to gold dust. We don't do it by design, but by incite. Rushdie got free publicity, knighthood and lifetime security because we couldn't control ourselves. A publication of thousands now sells in a million copies because we were unkind and intolerant. All writers who are no good but ambitious are welcome to target us and our beliefs for unlimited monetary gains.
Next time, if someone abuses your mother or father, don't take offense as he has the right to exercise ''freedom of expression"