Charlie Hebdo to publish 1 million copies so that “stupidity will not win”

The offices of satirical French weekly Charlie Hebdo were horrifically attacked yesterday by masked gunmen. The attack killed 12 people, mostly staffers, and injured more. However, the surviving staff members have vowed to keep publishing and to increase the normal print run from 60,000 to 1 million next week. The Guardian reports:

Google said it would donate €250,000 (£195,000) to help support the publication from its press innovation fund; a further €250,000 was pledged by French newspaper publishers, to be taken by a donation tax, according to a report in Les Echos.

The two groups involved in the distribution of the papers will take no fee for next week’s issue.

Charlie Hebdo columnist Patrick Pelloux said, “It’s very hard. We are all suffering, with grief, with fear, but we will do it anyway because stupidity will not win.”

Cartoonist around the world have been expressing their solidarity. Many prominent editors and writers have signed PEN America’s statement of condemnation of the attack. Author Salman Rushdie, who is on the same Al-Qaeda hit-list as Charlie Hebdo editor Stephane Charbonnier, released a statement yesterday saying “I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must.”