Patrick Merle, professor in the School of Communication, spoke on the nightly news this week about the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France.

Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical magazine, was attacked by two radical Islamic gunmen on January 7th, 2015. The men forced their way into the building and opened fire, killing twelve. The response to the attacks was overwhelming, with #jesuischarlie becoming one of the most popular hashtags of all time on Twitter. The phrase, which is French for “I am Charlie,” was adopted by supporters of free speech and freedom of expression who were killed at the Charlie Hebdo shooting.

Merle worked in Paris as a journalist for many years and provided unique insight on the attacks. Abbey Maurer, “Charlie Hebdo was created in the 1970s and has been published every Wednesday since then,” Merle said. “The French population wants the magazine to continue and thrive, they are a good symbol and they will be published next week with over a million copies.”

The magazine demand has increased from the usual 60,000 to over 5 million issues this week.

Watch the full news story on WTXL here.