Filmmakers, academics, musicians, women and men of letters are arrested and threatened with death, beaten with electric cables, then abandoned in prison cells… Individuals embodying peace and the civic spirit have been savagely assassinated. The pro-democracy activist, Ghiyath Matar, offered water and roses to the military forces and was killed. The demonstrators’ bard, Ibrahim Qachouch, wrote the song, Syria wants freedom, and they cut his throat. The human rights activist, Farzat Yahya Jarban, filmed the demonstrations, and they gouged out his eyes. Hamza, a boy of 13 years old, was killed and his body mutilated. Hajar, a young girl, was riddled with bullets. Thousands of other people are reported missing.

Today, we are forced to choose between our humanity and a regime that has the blood of Syrians on its hands. Today, we declare ourselves to be on the side of freedom and creativity. We choose a people that has freed itself for the good of all. The freedom expressed on the streets has awoken ours. We cannot bring back to life our martyrs, but we can celebrate their lives and work body and soul with the Syrian revolution, to build a new country where children will not be murdered in the name of nationalist impostures.

Via Tom Spurgeon

According to the Botswana Gazette, the presiding judges were alerted to the incident and ordered security to return the drawings and allow Gaongalelwe to continue citing that the artist was not distracting nor doing anything illegal.

More chapters will be published throughout 2012 focusing on Haitian politics, the role of NGO’s, and where relief money was spent (or not). Interestingly the comics will be published in English, French, and Creole.

PRI interviews Syrian cartoonist Ali Ferzat who is now in Kuwait recouping from the being beaten by Syrian authorities who attempted to silence the cartoonist by clubbing and breaking his hands. Accompanying story also includes a slideshow of his work and descriptions of some of the cartoons critical of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad that lead to the attempt to silence him. Story runs about 5 minutes.

From the Guardian:

Best known for his spiky comic drawings depicting the outrageous antics of the St Trinian’s girls, and for his illustrations of the Molesworth series, written by Geoffrey Willans and which, as any fule kno, tells of life at the boys’ prep school St Custard’s.

Searle “created an alternative to the conformity of Harold Macmillan’s Britain”, said his publisher Simon Winder. “He gave Britain in the 1950s particularly a sense of anarchy. He was extraordinarily sceptical about all forms of authority [and] there’s something just astonishingly anarchic about Molesworth and St Trinian’s,” said Winder. “That’s why they have appealed to so many generations.”

Also honored was the Burmese newspaper Weekly Eleven News.

From their press release:

“This year we are honouring a courageous journalist who has been the victim of brutal repression by an obsolete government,” Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Jean-Francois Julliard said. “Ali Ferzat fully deserves this award. His cartoons target the abuses of a desperate regime with its back to the wall and encourage Syrians to demand their rights and to express themselves freely.

“We are also honouring a newspaper that has never bowed to Burma’s censors. Weekly Eleven News has always stood up to the military junta, using extraordinary ingenuity to slip through the censorship net and inform the Burmese public. Its editors and reporters have taken considerable risks and deserve our encouragement. At a time when Burmese political life and society seem to be showing signs of opening up, Weekly Eleven News has more than ever a key role to play.”

Other nominees for the Golden Stanley include: Andrew Weldon, David Pope, David Rowe, Mark Knight and Peter Broelman. Emdin is also noted for being the first Australian to win a National Cartoonists Society award in the Magazine Feature/Magazine Illustration division.

Turkish cartoonist Bahadir Baruter will be put on trial for “insulting the religious values adopted by a part of the population.” One of his cartoons depicted a group of men in a mosque praying but Bahadir wrote the words “There is no Allah, religion is a lie” in the decorations of the wall. A few citizens caught the message and filed complaints.

Here’s an excerpt from the first question skipping the how he got interested in cartooning response:

Q: How did you get started drawing political cartoons?

A: In 1998, former Deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim was arrested. I felt I need to make a comeback as a cartoonist and not to keep quiet about this conspiracy against Anwar. As a cartoonist, I need to show my stand and views about this situation. In February1999, I sent my cartoons to Harakah, the newspaper run by PAS. It was the only opposition newspaper then. They accepted my cartoons and they kept publishing them. I got good response from the publisher.

So here I can draw what I want to draw. I can make my stand and do my best. It was a turning point in my career. People started to know me.

Watching the struggles Zunar has had to face in the last couple of years should make us grateful here in the US that we have so much greater freedom of speech and press.

From the Guardian:

Fame has in the past offered a measure of protection from the full force of the regime, allowing outspoken cultural figures to get away with more criticism than others. But in recent weeks, a string of artists, writers and actors have been arrested.

…

“Ferzat’s arrest is part of an intimidation campaign by security forces who have increasing leeway,” Ammar Abdulhamid, a US-based dissident and son of the actor Mona Wasif said. “At this stage fame may be more of a danger than a protection because the regime does not want any prominent figure to come to the fore and provide a public face for the revolution.”

Ali was dumped bleeding at the side of a road and was discovered by passerby.

UPDATED: The Washington Post has photos of Ali in the hospital. The security forces broke his hands.