Earlier this month, a tragic, heinous terrorist attack took the lives of staff members from the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, police officers and, later, hostages at a kosher market in Paris.

This much we can all agree on.

Beyond that, it gets murky. There are so many issues to tackle that a publication with limited jurisdiction cannot possibly hope to cover each one thoroughly.

However, our staff is made up entirely of young, prospective journalists who each have personal stakes in free speech and journalistic responsibility. As such, we feel the need to give a few official stances regarding the major issues at play here.

First and foremost, we absolutely condemn any instances of physical violence perpetrated against people solely because of thoughts they express. This should be obvious. There is zero justification for what happened in Paris.

However, as journalists, we also need to understand what is acceptable and responsible to publish. Freedom of speech does not mean all thoughts are of equal merit.

Contrary to popular belief, words can hurt. In showing solidarity with Charlie Hebdo, some chose to spread or defend the magazine’s brazenly offensive work under the misguided notion that not doing so is censorship or “letting the terrorists win.”

Perpetuating racism and Islamophobia is in no way a noble act. It only adds to a culture of hostility toward innocent people that threatens the livelihood of billions across the globe.

We also feel that journalists need to better understand how to prioritize coverage. On the same day as the Charlie Hebdo massacre, the terrorist organization Boko Haram committed a mass killing of up to 2,000 people in the Nigerian town of Baga.

Many outlets devoted entire weeks to coverage of the Paris attacks with, at best, minimal acknowledgement of the events in Nigeria. Even if the content of the coverage featured no visible political slant, what they chose to cover revealed their priorities.

As journalists, we need to remember that what we choose to cover is as important as how we cover it. It is easy to latch onto one story and approach it several times over to pander to our readers, but it is not responsible.

At the Sunflower, our job is to tell stories directly or tangentially related to Wichita State, meaning much of the above does not entirely apply to us. However, we recognize that our job is to give a voice to those who have no voice and to understand what is newsworthy and what coverage is fairest to all involved.

­­— For the Editorial Board, Alex Perry