Daniel Wickham's epic Twitter attack on world leaders at Paris march

United front or hypocritical? World leaders walk arm-in-arm at the head of the Paris march on Sunday. Photo: AFP

One student has spoken up against the world leaders with poor human rights records who took it upon themselves to march for free speech following the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks.

In what is believed to be the biggest march in France since Paris' liberation from the Nazis in 1944, an estimated 1.5 million people took to the streets in the aftermath of the Paris terror attacks on Sunday. At the head of the march were 40 world leaders, including King Abdullah of Jordan, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyehu and British Prime Minister David Cameron.

In a series of tweets, London School of Economics student Daniel Wickham attacked some of the world leaders for attending the rally despite restricting press freedom in their own countries.

Daniel Wickham: Student skewers world leaders.

French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has attracted controversy through its non-conformist reports, cartoons and jokes, including cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad. Since the terrorist attack the phrase Je suis Charlie, or "I am Charlie", has been adopted as a cry for free speech.

The tweets have struck a chord with
the public, with each tweet attracting thousands of retweets.

So here are some of the staunch defenders of the free press attending the solidarity rally in Paris today...1) King Abdullah of Jordan, which last year sentenced a Palestinian journalist to 15 years in prison with hard labour : http://t.co/giZg7JounI
2) Prime Minister of Davutoglu of Turkey, which imprisons more journalists than any other country in the world: http://t.co/sLCJaZprex
3) Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel, whose forced killed 7 journalists in Gaza last yr (second highest after Syria) : http://t.co/w74zqVHZf9
4) Foreign Minister Shoukry of Egypt, which as well as AJ staff has detained journalist Shawkan for around 500 days : http://t.co/xzVRgmkM1g
5) Foreign Minister Lavrov of Russia, which last year jailed a journalist for "insulting a government servant": http://t.co/J4Rca9chuA
6) Foreign Minister Lamamra of Algeria, which has detained journalist Abdessami Abdelhai for 15 months without charge: http://t.co/KlDiwKibzL
7) The Foreign Minister of the UAE, which in 2013 held a journo incommunicado for a month on suspicion of MB links : https://t.co/15ESrDu1kh
8) Prim e Minister Jomaa of Tunisia, which recently jailed blogger Yassine Ayan for 3 years for "defaming the army" : http://t.co/8fwfVHq8VK
9) The PMs of Georgia and Bulgaria, both of whom have a record of attacking & beating journos : http://t.co/sB0gkTtnJl
10) The Attorney General of the US, where police in Ferguson have recently detained and assaulted WashPost reporters : http://t.co/fYtWGEl3pL
11) Prime Minister Samaras of Greece, where riot police beat & injured two journalists at a protest in June last year : http://t.co/Vr8MPsEwWR
12) Sec-Gen of NATO, who are yet to be held to account for deliberately bombing and killing 16 Serbian journos in '99: http://t.co/wp0mR0a52l
13) President Keita of Mali, where journalists are expelled for covering human rights abuses : https:// t.co/LByJYLfxIe
14) The Foreign Minister of Bahrain, 2nd biggest jailer of journos in the world per capita (they also torture them) : http://t.co/HX6Q3Ia3lG
15) Sheikh Mohamed Ben Hamad Ben Khalifa Al Thani of Qatar, which jailed a man for 15 ys for writing the Jasmine poem : http://t.co/8s1N0wcPC6
16) Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, who had several journalists jailed for insulting him in 2013 : http://t.co/2p0VXYB2Sd
17) Prime Minister Cerar of Slovenia, which sentenced a blogger to six months in prison for "defamation" in 2013: http://t.co/cBVYh4niys
18) Prime Minister Enda Kenny of Ireland, where "blasphemy" is considered a criminal offense : http://t.co/zyJlZnAEwS
19) Prime Minister Kopacz of Poland, which raided a magazine to seize recordings embarrassing f or the ruling party : http://t.co/6asFIyiLr9
20) PM Cameron of the UK, where authorities destroyed documents obtained by The Guardian and threatened prosecution : http://t.co/VLS13dnckJ
21) Saud i ambassador to France. The Saudis publicly flogged blogger @raif_badawi for "insulting Islam" on Friday : http://t.co/ZTlPCGa6u5

Mr Wickham's tweets followed Reporters Without Borders condeming the presence of the world leaders as "predators". In a media release issued on Sunday, RWB said it was "outraged by the presence of officials from countries that restrict freedom of information".

"It would be unacceptable if representatives of countries that silence journalists were to take advantage of the current outpouring of emotion to try to improve their international image and then continue their repressive policies when they return home," RWB secretary-general Christophe Deloire said in a statement.

"We must not let predators of press freedom spit on the graves of Charlie Hebdo."

Among those who were present at the march was Sameh Shoukry, the foreign minister of Egypt, where Australian journalist Peter Greste and two of his Al Jazeera colleagues have remained in prison for more than a year. The Egyptian court has ordered a retrial of the three journalists.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/daniel-wickhams-epic-twitter-attack-on-world-leaders-at-paris-march-20150113-12myjf.html

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