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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 11 JANUARY 2015 Opinion 23 Without entering into a lengthy discussion of Derrida's philosophy, it is important to remind oneself that "text" and "textuality" represent the ever- expanding horizon of meanings that we "weave" together (as in a never-ending "textile") to make sense of the world. Derrida's (in) famous and often misquoted claim also reinforces what another philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, claimed about interpretation. The Italian philosopher and politician Gianni Vattimo sums up Nietzsche's claim nicely: "All we have are interpretations". Far from sheer relativism, this approach to how we live within a world that is woven by our diverse meanings, comes closer to us in that we have been brought up on the Book — indeed holy texts like the Bible, the Torah, and the Quran — as that which matters for those who read, interpret and weave the text in their moral and political imaginaries. To many extents, one could claim that we owe our interpretative freedom to the Book, even when we might even choose to reject what's in it. Let's not forget that before Martin Luther decided to challenge Papal authority, Christians of the Roman rite were not allowed to read the Bible without permission, while translators of the Bible like William Tyndale were burnt at the stake as heretics. This shows the powerful politics of interpretation and how the freedom of interpretation had to be constantly fought for. More so the political freedom that we now enjoy pertains to the very meanings by which we engage each other in exercising our liberty through the power of interpretation. "Nous sommes tous Charlie!" As our forms of interpretation become instruments by which people exert power, we often forget that we continuously interpret life and that this should remain open to further interpretations. The key to this continuity is found in the democratic conversations by which the freedom of interpretation takes place. This freedom can only be articulated by difference of opinion, as much as culture, background, religious and political ideas. So by way of concluding, I would like to remind readers that what matters to our claim to reason and the freedoms that were gradually won over centuries of political and religious struggles, is that unless we have the freedom to interpret and re-interpret the meanings we give our world in an environment marked by diversity, we could never preserve, let alone sustain, our democracies—those very same democracies that some claim to "defend" by wanting to live in a mono-cultural society. More importantly we must remember that we cannot defend democracy if liberty is not established within the freedom to interpret, and by consequence, the freedom to articulate an ever-expanding diversity of meanings, aspirations, ideas, and lifestyles that coexist peacefully and which expand our engagement with the world. To eliminate this multiplicity of interpretations by denouncing the confluence of a diversity of cultures as a "failure of liberal democracy", is to cut out any possibility by which we can sustain our democratic freedom — the same freedom that urges us to say "Nous sommes tous Charlie!" – We are all Charlie! John Baldacchino is Chair of Art Education at the University of Dundee, Scotland of interpretation In tribute to Charlie T hey are alarming statistics. 61 dead. 70 dead. 74 dead. 47 dead. 44 dead. 74 dead. These figures represent the number of journalists who have died each year from 2009 through 2014. More than 1,100 have been killed in the line of duty since 1992 – and these are conservative estimates. Charlie Hebdo and France are mourning the murder of 10 journalists and two police officers as the new year begins. There will, sadly and with certainty, be more as the year unfolds. When journalists are murdered, it is our entire society that should feel the wound. Is this recent attack the one that will finally wake everyone up to the fact that an attack on a journalist is an attack on us all? Shocking as it is, the fatal attack on the newsroom of Paris' leading satirical news weekly is not an isolated incident, but rather an extreme example of the brutal, violent reality for thousands of news professionals worldwide. Speak to newsmen and women in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Mexico, and countless other countries, and the shock and fear that has stunned France is all too familiar. That this attack happened in a country that, while struggling with its multicultural identity, is nonetheless committed to believing in difference and diversity – liberté, egalité, fraternité – is a tragic blow for those determined to celebrate these values. What is exceptional in this instance is that the climate of hatred that fuels attacks on journalists worldwide has reached the heart of European newsrooms. As we grieve, and as the reasons unfold and the story develops, I hope it will deeply register in the minds of ordinary Europeans just how precarious our freedoms have become; that anyone, anywhere, should be killed for exercising their right to freedom of expression is a travesty. Whether it is Paris, Sana'a or Baghdad, there is no exception. Only in solidarity can we hope to withstand assaults like this. But the reality – based on the lack of reaction to countless other tragic slayings of journalists over the years – is that until it happens in your own back yard, it often goes unregistered as being a threat at all. Wednesday's attack strikes at the fabric of democracy, and aspiring democratic societies, the world over. An attack on a publication like Charlie Hebdo – unafraid, imperturbable, unwavering in its acerbic political satire and penetrating social commentary – is intended as an attack on the values our societies uphold. That we are no more damning to others as we are to ourselves is a philosophy that has kept Europe at peace since World War II and in some ways has become the ultimate measure of our progress. Learning to respect difference yet providing no exception to the rule that "I may not like what you say, but I shall defend to my death your right to say it." Perhaps never has a phrase held such poignancy. This attack also looks to rip open the continent along fault lines that are wearing increasingly thin. Any fundamentalist thinking – right wing, left wing, economic, cultural or religious – will seek to exploit the perceived fragmentation of Europe and drive its people back into the cauldron of bitterness, hatred and sectarianism that pockmarks our history. Europe survives precisely because of its diversity, its differences. Any dogma – religious, economic, political or otherwise – that seeks to impose a single vision on European society, especially through violent means, would be rejected. And where this belief wavers, where attacks aim to wear thin the resolve, the press has a responsibility to remind Europeans of their past and to project a potential future according to the values that so many fought and died for prior to the birth of the modern continent. Attacks such as Wednesday's aim to exploit the fears that differences in religion and culture bring. We should be careful not to react with calls for tighter legislation that can be harmful to the very freedoms a critical press is designed to protect. The lessons of our American cousins and the post 9-11 Patriot Act as a response to terror should remind us that threats to our freedoms can come from many directions. Let us take the time to react, but let us first take the time to mourn this latest attempt on our freedom. We can neither predict nor prevent the actions of crazed fundamentalists, but we can entirely control our reaction to their devastating acts. In the face of this most recent tragedy we must reject the fear it was calculated to spread. The victims were martyred, not in the name of a prophet, a cause, or a twisted religious belief, but by a warped vision of our own world. We have a duty to those who died to resist that vision. They lived in the name of freedom, and died its truest practitioners. Andrew Heslop is Press Freedom director at the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers Andrew Heslop