Two journalists are leaving Charlie Hebdo, the satirical French newspaper whose staff was attacked in a January terror massacre.
Artistic director Luz had said in May that he planned to end his career as a Charlie Hebdo cartoonist. In this week’s issue, he made known that next week would be his last.
Writer Patrick Pelloux said in an interview on Saturday that he would also leave “probably” in January.
Luz was the one who drew the cover cartoon of a weeping Mohammed, saying “All is forgiven” in the issue following the Jan. 7 attack by Islamic extremists on the paper, which left 12 people dead. A second attack two days later on a Kosher grocery store in Paris killed five others. All three gunmen died in clashes with police.
“If I’ve decided to stop writing it’s because … something has ended,” Pelloux told the student radio station Web7Radio. “You have to know how to turn the page one day.”
He said those who escaped the massacre are not real survivors because “a part of us ended with these attacks.”
Sales of the paper rose dramatically after the January attack. But staff member Zineb el-Rhazoui told the iTele TV channel Saturday the latest departures are a sign of a “malaise” at Charlie Hebdo.
