When French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo was attacked on January 7, 2015, and 12 employees were gunned down because someone didn’t like the cartoons it published, I felt acutely, Christopher’s absence on the media circuit. While some were saying it was unwise for Charlie Hebdo to have published the cartoons in the first place (meaning they may have had it coming to them), I was glad to see that this time, many journalists and elected officials did speak up for freedom of speech (maybe this was a turning point?). As a staunch defender of the right to free speech (he described himself as a first amendment absolutist), Christopher certainly would not have been silent.  Recall that he strongly defended Salman Rushdie, when a death contract was placed on him for writing a novel, and spoke out with conviction when Dutch filmmaker, Theo van Gogh, was stabbed to death after publishing cartoons some found to be offensive. If you are interested to know what Christopher might have said, here are three particularly relevant videos that may give us an indication (two brief talks, and one longer, good debate):

What do you think of freedom of speech for the theme of the first HitchFest?