Courage Day (also known as The Day of the Imprisoned Writer) recognises writers who defend the right to free speech, and those who suffer oppression and are killed / imprisoned for their work. The beginning of the year was heralded with the deaths of 12 people following a bloody attack on the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hedbo. The editors and employees of Charlie Hedbo were not freelance journalists in war-torn countries. They were people sitting at computer desks near the tourist mecca of Paris’s Bastille monument, churning out satire for public consumption.

Their deaths remind us we should never take the right to freedom of speech for granted. More