PEN American Center | Associated Press
The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo will receive the PEN/Toni and James C. Goodale Freedom of Expression Courage Award, the PEN American Center announced on Wednesday. Charlie Hebdo staffer Jean-Baptiste Thore will accept the award.
“It is the role of the satirists in any free society to challenge the powerful and the sacred, pushing boundaries in ways that make expression freer and more robust for us all,” said PEN Executive Director Suzanne Nossel. “In paying the ultimate price for the exercise of their freedom, and then soldiering on amid devastating loss, Charlie Hebdo deserves to be recognized for its dauntlessness in the face of one of the most noxious assaults on expression in recent memory.”
According to The Associated Press, past PEN winners include Salman Rushdie, Philip Roth and Toni Morrison.
