Editor’s Letter: The Boar is Charlie

[dropcap]O[/dropcap]n Wednesday last week, the Boar team walked into our editorial meeting. We chatted about our deadlines, got excited about our latest article submissions. Someone found a new sofa to sit on; I forgot to bring biscuits. An hour later, we walked out and went to our lectures, the library, the bus stop.

Most importantly, we walked out alive. Around three hours before our meeting, the journalists of satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo walked into their editorial meeting. Ten of them would never walk out again: they would be carried, dead, shot by terrorists.

On occasions like this, there are thousands of words we could use, thousands of opinions we could express, condolences we could offer. Most importantly, we have – and must – raise our voices against islamophobia. For many days, all I felt capable of was silence. The attack had taken place in the very environment I feel the most safe, the all-important editorial meeting; it had taken place five minutes round the corner from my old house, from my year abroad in Paris. It was too close to home – a little too threatening, a little too real.

For many days, all I felt capable of was silence.

It has been widely reported that 2014 was one of the deadliest years to be a journalist. While my friends apply to grad schemes, I contemplate how likely it is that I might one day join the thousands of journalists on missing lists, under arrest in countries where the British government are powerless to help, held hostage by terrorist organisations, or quite simply dead.

As a paper that nurtures the journalists of the future, it has never been more important that the Boar expresses solidarité with those murdered in these vicious attacks. No matter the threats and the violence, we will not be silenced. In fact, it is because of this violence that we will continue to shout and scream.

And that is why the Boar is Charlie.

“The Boar is Charlie” by Charles Joseph MacDonald