As a part of the 15th World editors forum, press freedom round table representatives from magazines and newspapers from Europe and northern Africa discussed how media reacted to the publication of the controversial Mohammed cartoons. 

Philippe Val, a columnist and managing director of the French satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo, chose to publish the controversial Mohammed cartoons as a statement of free expression. This caused the biggest reactions in the magazine's history. This surprised him since his magazine is known in France to be anti-racial. After the publication Val lived under threat and needed protection by the police. Later, the Paris Grand Mosque and the union of Islamic organisations of France, took Philippe Val to court for printing the cartoons. The Paris court acquitted him in late March.

Also the renowned Algerian cartoonist Ali Dilem has repeatedly received death threats from Islamic groups. During the years of working as a cartoonist in Algeria he has faced multiple court cases and prison sentences. For him there is only one topic that is more difficult to handle than others: Islam. Mohammed is a thing he is trying to avoid on his cartoon pages.  

Ali Amar is co-founder and publisher of Moroccan weekly news magazine Le Journal Hebdomadaire. His magazine is famous for writing about taboo political topics but when it comes to the Mohammed cartoons the magazine didn't publish. In Algeria there were mass demonstrations, and Danish flags were burned during the most critical period. Le Journal instead tried to figure out who were behind these mass protests. They found it was their own government. Many of the demonstrators and the message from the demonstrations came from the state.