Tina Fey Reacts to Deadly France Shooting: ‘You Cannot Back Down on Free Speech’

ABC/RICK ROWELL(LOS ANGELES) — Tina Fey is no stranger to satire, as the former head writer for Saturday Night Live. The one-time co-anchor of SNL’s “Weekend Update” said that Wednesday’s deadly shooting in France, which targeted a satirical newspaper, is a reminder of the importance of free speech.

“I mean, obviously, that news is terrible and tragic and upsetting,” Fey said onstage at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour in Los Angeles. “And, I mean, yeah, you look at that, or you look at even the controversies surrounding The Interview, it makes you remember how important free speech is and it absolutely must be defended.  And you cannot back down on free speech in any way.”

French President Francois Hollande confirmed Wednesday that 12 people are dead and 11 others critically injured after a shooting at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, which had published cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.  Three years ago, the publication’s offices were firebombed for the same reason.

Speaking about her own experiences with controversial humor, Fey said that during her SNL days, especially after 9/11, she felt some jokes were tricky, but she couldn’t remember censoring herself.

“I think the closest memory I would have of that would’ve been back doing ‘Weekend Update,’ which was a long time ago, but even that was a different era because [now it’s] a social media era where you make a joke on American TV and it can go worldwide…a different environment,” she explained.

“But we’re Americans.  We have to be able to, even if it’s just dumb jokes in The Interview, we have to be able to make them,” Fey concluded.

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