The Four Color Media Monitor: A recent Asterix reprint may have fallen victim to censorship of its famed intro

The president of the Czech Republic, Andrej Babiš, was interviewed in the French press about the right to defend European borders against Islamic invaders making their way to the continent as illegal immigrants, and the article reveals that one of France's most famous comic strips, Asterix (which the politician compared the fight for defending borders to), may have been victimized by the kind of censorship that's eating up western Europe now:

Sections of the French press wondered if Asterix’s adventures, which first appeared in 1959, had fallen victim to censorship in Europe’s heated political climate and the debate over mass migration, when its 37th volume was published a year ago.

With the series’ “famous opening pages” omitted from the volume — meaning Asterix and Obelix were no longer introduced as “Gauls who resist the invader” — some media outlets questioned whether its publisher had felt “that this phrase, which is emblematic of the saga, is today too controversial to be delivered to an audience of millions?”

It's sadly and entirely possible Hachette - current publisher following the prior Dargaud - caved, as this kind of political correctness has become all too common and rampant in the cowardice consuming Europe today, and I'm sure it's not the only European/French/Belgian comic that could be victimized by modern censorship. Co-creating cartoonist Albert Uderzo sold the publication rights a number of years ago, and now, that could end up leading further to its ruination.

Labels: comic strips, Europe and Asia, islam and jihad, politics, terrorism

Hilarious. This is what you get when your entire media - in this case book publishing - is in the hands of the far left. Censorship as a "moral" principle. You know, I thought "Comicsgate" was just a meaningless hobby for some big time artists, but it could also be viewed as Asterix's village holding out against the Roman armies.

Posted by Mr. Bee | 10:39 AM

Asterix and Obelix were defending their village against an invading
army that had superior manpower, technology and weoponry. That is a
far cry from keeping out fleeing refugees. Refugees are not illegal
immigrants; they are people making a lawful claim for asylum as they
have a right to do under national and international law.

The bit about Asterix seems to be a phony manufactured concern, a case
of fake outrage, created by misquoting older articles. The article
that Breitbart uses as a reference read:

"Exit également les quelques lignes situant l’action : “Nous sommes en 50 avant Jésus-Christ. Toute la Gaule est occupée par les Romains… Toute ? Non. Un village peuplé d’irréductibles Gaulois résiste encore et toujours et à l’envahisseur…” L’éditeur a-t-il estimé que ce petit texte emblématique de la saga était aujourd’hui trop violent pour être livré à des millions de lecteurs ?

Interrogée par 20 Minutes, une représentante d’Hachette balaie le sujet, estimant que “cette question n’a pas d’intérêt”, peut-on lire sur le site du quotidien gratuit. Et de simplement évoquer un « parti pris éditorial »…

The Breitbart article you take the quote from translates violent as controversial.
But "violent" in French means pretty much the same as it means in English;
if they had wanted to say controversial, they would have used the word
controversé. The article is saying that they removed the intro because
it was too violent, not because it was too controversial; and even if
they somehow meant violent in the sense of controversial, there is
nothing in the article to link the ‘controversy’ to refugees.

You can’t rely too much on Breitbart; it is like Fox News on crack.
They often write their facts wrong, or put so much spin on them that
they lose touch with reality. Maybe there are other people in France who
saw something political in the removal of the old intro, but the Breitbart
article makes no mention of them.