This chapter addresses one of the defining controversies of recent years: Charlie Hebdo’s cartooning on Islam, which it published on an avowedly inclusive anticlerical footing alongside other religions, a stance that culminated in the Islamic attacks on its offices in 2015. The French satirical newspaper first gained international prominence in 2005 when it republished cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed commissioned by Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten, asserting a secularist position backed up by its own cartoons. This was later upheld in French court. Drawing on decades of research, including interviews with its contributors, this chapter explores the ethical complexities surrounding such conviction-driven cartooning—including tensions between ‘punching up’ and ‘punching down’, and the friction between its local satirical register and global symbolic weight. It considers the French state’s attempts to help mediate the tradition of political cartooning as valued democratic commentary, including plans for a dedicated cultural centre in central Paris. Since its 1992 relaunch under Philippe Val, Charlie Hebdo has contended with internal schisms over its handling of Islam and free speech, and purist critiques denouncing a lost spirit of Juvenilian transgression compared to its previous bête et méchant configuration in the 1970s. This however has tended to overlook the everyday constraints—editorial, financial and human—that shape the production of political cartooning. Charlie Hebdo’s continued adherence to freedom of expression—within the limits of French law—still defies pressures to adhere to an ethic of responsibility, which emphasises moderation and sensitivity to satire’s potential harms. This is the fundamental challenge of the twenty-first century cartoonist and satirical press.