Cristina, Carrilho React to Being on Terrorist Target List
Skip to comments
Earlier this week we learned that Portugal’s Public Prosecutor’s Office had indicted nine individuals on terrorism charges. The far-right neo-Nazi group members allegedly had a target list of individuals they viewed as a threat due to their alignment with “immigration, anti-racism, anti-fascism, diversity, social inclusion, and minority rights.” That’s also when two cartoonists on the list, Cristina Sampaio and André Carrilho, found out they were on the target list.
“I reacted, obviously, with concern, not only because my name was on the list,” Cristina says. “But because of the realization that our democracy is becoming increasingly ill.”
André suspects he and the two other cartoonists were on the list due to their work on a project called Spam Cartoon. Spam Cartoon was a nine-year run of animated editorial cartoons that aired weekly on Portuguese state TV. “We were the targets of right-wing parties for some of our cartoons, and our work was used as an example of supposed bias of state media,” André says. He adds that the group had editorial independence, “but we were a convenient lighting rod for extreme right wing outrage and victimization.”
This is not the first time Cristina has been threatened for her work. In 2023 she was the target of a criminal lawsuit by the Portuguese police union alleging that a Spam Cartoon animation Cristina created “spread ‘untrue facts’ and hurt the force’s credibility and ‘prestige’.” The case was later dismissed, but not before Cristina received several threats on social media “even from police officers,” she says.
André says Portugal used to be safe place for cartoonists. “We didn’t used to be targeted that much. Newspapers here since the Carnation revolution view cartooning as a freedom of speech space and usually don’t interfere,” he says. “But that’s changing, specifically since the founding of the far-right party Chega in 2019. As they gain power, these people are intensifying attacks on cartooning.”
Comments