Up to 1.6 million people are estimated to have taken the streets of Paris on Sunday January 11, 2015 in a striking show of solidarity against extremism. Crowds responded to terrorist strikes killing 17 people in France last week. Since then millions have reunited around a slogan of unity and defiance:“Je Suis Charlie” which referred to Wednesday’s attack of the French
satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo killing 12 people. Other four victims where killed during the attacks of a Jewish supermarket on Friday in Paris.
#JeSuisCharlie, has appeared across the internet since Wednesday night initially becoming shorthand for support for freedom of speech and for a free press but on Sunday the message became more global. Sunday’s demonstration started Place de la République, under a statue of Marianne, France’s symbol of freedom. Thousands waved the tricolor French flag, held pens and flashed signs, buttons and placards of the black and white phrase “Je suis Charlie”.
On January 11, 2015 photojournalist Eléonore de Bonneval asked Place de la République’s demonstrators what #JeSuisCharlie meant to them personally.
