More than 40 world leaders joined around 3.7 million people all over France on Sunday to show solidarity with the victims of the attack on the office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and the subsequent attacks around Paris last week.
The rallies were also seen as a statement in defense of freedom of speech, and freedom of the press. But many observers noticed that some of the leaders present at the march have a poor record in terms of freedom of speech and the press in their own countries.
Reporters Without Borders said it was "appalled by the presence of leaders from countries where journalists and bloggers are systematically persecuted" and went as far as to call them "predators."
"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," the organization wrote in a post on Sunday. "We must not let predators of press freedom spit on the graves of Charlie Hebdo."
Others, including journalists, were very critical of this apparent hypocrisy as well.
Have the world's leaders suddenly seen the light on press freedom?— James Risen (@JamesRisen) January 11, 2015
#Egypt sends FM to #JeSuisCharlie and #ParisMarch while still holding #Aljazeera journos for more than 1 year. pic.twitter.com/rFdcHCaNuH— Ahmed Shihab-Eldin (@ASE) January 11, 2015
Daniel Wickham, a London-based blogger, detailed the contradictions and poor records of some of the leaders at the march in a long Twitter storm.
"So here are some of the staunch defenders of the free press attending the solidarity rally in Paris today," he wrote.
1) King Abdullah of Jordan, which last year sentenced a Palestinian journalist to 15 years in prison with hard labour http://t.co/giZg7JounI— Daniel Wickham (@DanielWickham93) January 11, 2015
2) Prime Minister of Davutoglu of Turkey, which imprisons more journalists than any other country in the world http://t.co/sLCJaZprex— Daniel Wickham (@DanielWickham93) January 11, 2015
3) Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel, whose forced killed 7 journalists in Gaza last yr (second highest after Syria) http://t.co/w74zqVHZf9— Daniel Wickham (@DanielWickham93) January 11, 2015
4) Foreign Minister Shoukry of Egypt, which as well as AJ staff has detained journalist Shawkan for around 500 days http://t.co/xzVRgmkM1g— Daniel Wickham (@DanielWickham93) January 11, 2015
5) Foreign Minister Lavrov of Russia, which last year jailed a journalist for "insulting a government servant" http://t.co/J4Rca9chuA— Daniel Wickham (@DanielWickham93) January 11, 2015
6) Foreign Minister Lamamra of Algeria, which has detained journalist Abdessami Abdelhai for 15 months without charge http://t.co/KlDiwKibzL— Daniel Wickham (@DanielWickham93) January 11, 2015
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— Daniel Wickham (@DanielWickham93) January 11, 2015
8) Prime Minister Jomaa of Tunisia, which recently jailed blogger Yassine Ayan for 3 years for "defaming the army" http://t.co/8fwfVHq8VK— Daniel Wickham (@DanielWickham93) January 11, 2015
9) The PMs of Georgia and Bulgaria, both of whom have a record of attacking & beating journos http://t.co/sB0gkTtnJl http://t.co/bnvaAyic5p— Daniel Wickham (@DanielWickham93) January 11, 2015
10) The Attorney General of the US, where police in Ferguson have recently detained and assaulted WashPost reporters http://t.co/fYtWGEl3pL— Daniel Wickham (@DanielWickham93) January 11, 2015
11) Prime Minister Samaras of Greece, where riot police beat & injured two journalists at a protest in June last year http://t.co/Vr8MPsEwWR— Daniel Wickham (@DanielWickham93) January 11, 2015
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— Daniel Wickham (@DanielWickham93) January 11, 2015
13) President Keita of Mali, where journalists are expelled for covering human rights abuses https://t.co/LByJYLfxIe— Daniel Wickham (@DanielWickham93) January 11, 2015
14) The Foreign Minister of Bahrain, 2nd biggest jailer of journos in the world per capita (they also torture them) http://t.co/HX6Q3Ia3lG— Daniel Wickham (@DanielWickham93) January 11, 2015
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— Daniel Wickham (@DanielWickham93) January 11, 2015
16) Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, who had several journalists jailed for insulting him in 2013 http://t.co/2p0VXYB2Sd— Daniel Wickham (@DanielWickham93) January 11, 2015
17) Prime Minister Cerar of Slovenia, which sentenced a blogger to six months in prison for "defamation" in 2013 http://t.co/cBVYh4niys— Daniel Wickham (@DanielWickham93) January 11, 2015
18) Prime Minister Enda Kenny of Ireland, where "blasphemy" is considered a criminal offense http://t.co/zyJlZnAEwS— Daniel Wickham (@DanielWickham93) January 11, 2015
19) Prime Minister Kopacz of Poland, which raided a magazine to seize recordings embarrassing for the ruling party http://t.co/6asFIyiLr9— Daniel Wickham (@DanielWickham93) January 11, 2015
20) PM Cameron of the UK, where authorities destroyed documents obtained by The Guardian and threatened prosecution http://t.co/VLS13dnckJ— Daniel Wickham (@DanielWickham93) January 11, 2015
21) Saudi ambassador to France. The Saudis publicly flogged blogger @raif_badawi for "insulting Islam" on Friday http://t.co/ZTlPCGa6u5— Daniel Wickham (@DanielWickham93) January 11, 2015