Iran’s Diverse Coverage of Paris Attack

January 14, 2015

Several Iranian newspapers ran front page stories on the killing of 12 people at the Paris headquarters of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Some focused on the tragic nature of the attack and labeled it terrorism. For example, Etemad published the headline “Black Wednesday in Paris.” But both conservative and reformist papers criticized Charlie Hebdo for publishing inflammatory cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed. And a few hardliner publications shifted the focus to criticizing French policy in the Middle East or rising “Islamophobia” in Europe.

The following is a sampling of the diverse imagery used in Iranian coverage of the Charlie Hebdo shooting.
 
Mardam-e Emrooz
 
The daily ran a picture of American actor George Clooney, who wore a pin with the now viral phrase “Je Suis Charlie” (French for “I am Charlie”) —to the Golden Globes on January 11. The headline read “Clooney: I too am Charlie.”
 
 
Another headline read “Nightmare in Paris” over a caricature of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.
 

Shahrvand
 
A headline read “Air of Death in France.”
 
 
Shargh Daily
 
Shargh Daily took the bold step of tweeting a photograph of slain editor Stephane Charbonnier holding a cover of Charlie Hebdo depicting an imam and a rabbi. It did not, however, run either photo in print.
 
The publication also tweeted caricature from Charlie Hebdo mocking al Baghdadi.
 
Ghanoon
 
Iran
 
A headline read “Terrorists staged a bloody show in Paris, killing 12 people.”
 
 
Ebtekar
 
 
Photo credits: Mardam-e Emrooz via Facebook and other headlines via Iran Front Page news