Potential security risks caused the cancellation of a discussion on the French Satirical paper.

Aine McMahon reports for The Irish Times:

Queen’s University conference on Charlie Hebdo ‘cancelled’

A conference about the satirical French publication Charlie Hebdo that was set to take place at Queen’s University Belfast has allegedly been cancelled because of a potential security risk.

The conference, “Understanding Charlie: New perspectives on contemporary citizenship after Charlie Hebdo Symposium” was due to take place on June 4th and 5th.

Jason Walsh, a journalist and academic who was due to speak at the conference said he received an email on Monday which said the event was cancelled on the grounds of a “security risk”.

“I’m actually from Belfast, so I find the idea of security risk somewhat puzzling,” Mr Walsh said. “There were no shortage of security risks during the Troubles and I’m sure no university decided that merely speaking on an issue was too dangerous.

“I can’t speak to the nature of the apparent risk, but it seems more likely to me that the subject matter was simply considered too toxic to touch, which is in itself puzzling, as I would hardly expect particularly strong viewpoints from academics.”