Charlie Hebdo editor in 2012: 'I prefer to die than live like a rat'

The executed chief editor of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo once declared he would rather die than give up his freedom of speech.

Stephane Charbonnier, 46, known by his pen name Charb, made the statement in a 2012 interview after controversy erupted over the periodical's controversial cartoons portraying Muslim prohet Mohammed.

"Our job is not to defend freedom of speech but without it we're dead," he told ABC News.

"We can't live in a country without freedom of speech.

"I prefer to die than to live like a rat."

Mr Charbonnier was one of at least 12 people killed when two masked men brandishing Kalashnikovs burst into Hebdo's headquarters overnight.

Charbonnier took over the running of Hebdo in 2009 after joining its staff in 1992.

His irreverent caricatures of politicians and other figures mostly appeared in the publication, but also popped up in many other left-wing outlets and outright comics. 

He had been living under police protection after receiving death threats for Hebdo's run of a Mohammed cartoon in 2011, which also saw the newspaper firebombed and its website hacked.

The publication aimed to poke fun at religious, government, popular figures and institutions. 

It was banned in 1970 after publishing a cartoon lampooning media coverage of deadly fire, according to translated text from Hebdo's website. 

The attack is the bloodiest in France for at least four decades.

The gunmen reportedly asked for the cartoonists by name before shooting them dead and yelling "the Prophet has been avenged".

Cartoonist Corinne Rey, 32, told French publication L’Humanite the gunmen "spoke perfect French" and told her "they were from Al Qaeda".