Charlie Hebdo shootings: Queensland cartoonist Larry Pickering says police offered him protection
By Charmaine Kane
January 13, 2015, 11:01 am
Larry Pickering says journalists must protect freedom of speech.
Queensland journalist and cartoonist Larry Pickering says police have offered to provide him with protective surveillance after he posted a provocative image on his website.
He said officers visited him at home on Sunday night after he posted an image of the Prophet Mohammed on his website after the executions of staff at the French satirical weekly, Charlie Hebdo, in Paris.
Seventeen people, including journalists and police, and three gunmen died in three days of violence in France, sparked by the Charlie Hebdo killings.
French police said the three gunmen involved in the attacks were part of a Paris-based militant Islamist cell.
Mr Pickering said he draw the image in response to what happened in France as a sign that he "refused to be cowed" by what happened.
He said the first he knew of police interest in his website was when they knocked on his gate in the pouring rain on Sunday night.
"I was a little bit surprised because I sat back and thought, now why would they do that, and then I thought ... they must have had some sort of information that I don't know about," Mr Pickering said.
"It seems very strange that two of these coppers would drive all the way from Brisbane on Sunday night in pouring rain just to have two hours with me.
"They sat down for a couple of hours, and they were very nice guys ... they weren't trying to stop me doing anything, they were just saying 'we've got reason to believe that you should be careful' - whatever that means, I don't know.
"They weren't against what I was doing, they just said look if you plan on doing anything that provocative again give us some notice."
A Queensland Police spokesman said for operational security reasons they could not confirm or deny whether Mr Pickering had been offered protection.
Mr Pickering said he would not stop drawing images he considered appropriate.
"I don't think the Paris cartoonists were particularly smart or clever; I think most of them were crass, but I still think they had a right to say it, and that's what all journalists should promote," he said. "It's a pretty hostile environment when these sort of things happen, but I think if you run away and hide in a corner then they've already won."
ABC
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