Glasgow: January 8, 2015. (PCP) The shocking attack on the headquarters of the French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, was a clear attack on the right to free speech, says Global Minorities Alliance. Three gunmen shot dead 12 people, including the editor of the magazine, a number of famous cartoonists and a number of policemen. At the time of writing, they are still at large. Global Minorities Alliance (GMA), a UK-based charity which campaigns for the rights of minority communities the world over, condemns this attack as an attack on freedom. “There are many countries in the world where people cannot speak freely, or are persecuted because they have refused to bow to censorship,” said Shahid Khan, Vice-Chairperson of GMA. “All violent attacks are atrocities to be decried, but attacks on the right to free speech are against something we all hold dear – the right to speak in our own voices without fear of retribution. “France is one of the homes of human rights, as the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was signed there in 1789. Today one of those rights – that ‘no one shall be disquieted on account of his opinions’ – has been challenged. “But the people will refuse to bow to this attack on the right to free speech. The journalists who lost their lives today will forever be remembered, and all those around the world who feel silenced by others are standing in solidarity with the French people tonight.”