NEW YORK, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- The editor-in-chief of Charlie Hebdo, Gerard Blard, claims the magazine's covers represent freedom of speech and freedom of religion.
On Meet the Press, host Chuck Todd asked Blard what he thinks of news organizations censoring the Hebdo covers featuring the Prophet Muhammad.
Blard said they cannot blame newspapers in "totalitarian regimes" for not publishing the pictures, but he is critical of newspapers in democratic nations that choose not to publish them. He says the image of the prophet is "a symbol of freedom of speech, of freedom of religion, of democracy and secularism."
"When they refuse to publish this cartoon, when they blur it out, when they decline to publish it, they blur out democracy, secularism, freedom of conscience, and they insult the citizenship," Blard said.
Blard claims religion has "no place in the political arena." He says "once religion injects itself into the political debate, the political debate become totalitarian."
