A child holds a pen during a vigil outside the Consulate General of France to pay tribute to the victims of an attack on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris
IN PHOTO: A child holds a pen during a vigil outside the Consulate General of France to pay tribute to the victims of an attack on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, in San Francisco, California January 7, 2015. The youngest of three French nationals being sought by police for a suspected Islamist militant attack that killed 12 people at a satirical magazine on Wednesday turned himself in to the police, an official at the Paris prosecutor's office said. The hooded attackers stormed the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a weekly known for lampooning Islam and other religions, in the most deadly militant attack on French soil in decades. Reuters/Stephen Lam

Maori veteran broadcaster Derek Fox has been slammed for his “shameful” post about the Paris terror attacks. The New Zealand journalist claimed Charlie Hebdo editor Stephane Charbonnier “paid the price for his arrogance” when he and 11 other people were killed by two masked gunmen on Wednesday.

Charbonnier was killed along with eight other Charlie Hebdo employees and two National Police officers by the gunmen who entered the satirical weekly newspaper’s Paris headquarters on January 7. The assailants were identified as brothers Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi, who are both French nationals.

According to officials, the motive of the terror attacks could be the group’s extreme hatred for the newspaper’s satirical cartoons lampooning Islamic leaders and the Prophet Muhammad.

Fox blamed Charbonnier for the death of his colleagues. The attacks were apparently due to Charbonnier being a “bully” and a “bigot” who abused free speech.

“The editor of the French magazine has paid the price for his assumption of cultural superiority and arrogance, he was the bully believing he could insult other people’s culture and with impunity and he believed he would be protected in his racism and bigotry by the French state,” Fox wrote on Facebook. “Well he was wrong, unfortunately in paying the price of his arrogance he took another 11 people with him.”

The former mayor of Wairoa went on to say that people like Charbonnier like to claim freedom of speech when they ridicule people who aren’t like them. They like the privilege free speech gives them, but they ignore the responsibilities that come with it.

“This should learn as a lesson to other believe who believe they can use the power they wield by way of dominating the media to abuse and ridicule others they believe to inferior to them – just like on this country,” he continued.

His passionate post garnered criticisms from readers, who slammed the former Maori Party candidate for his insensitive and “disgusting” victim-blaming comments. The Maori Party has quickly distanced itself from Fox’s views. Co-leader Marama Fox told New Zealand Herald that Fox was only “loosely connected” to the party.

National Party list MP Chris Bishop also thought Fox’s post was a “horrific, ridiculous, shameful comment.” He added that freedom of speech is a human right and not “cultural supremacy.”

Napier Mayor Bill Dalton told Hawkes Bay Today Fox’s comments were not only “absolutely irresponsible,” but also “mindless, pointless stuff.” Napier’s Labour MP Stuart Nash also condemned the comments, saying, “Anything that limits free speech erodes a good democracy.”

Despite the overwhelming criticism he received, Fox isn’t backing down. He insisted that if Charlie Hebdo didn’t publish the cartoons, its staff “would still be alive now.”

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