A Malaysian court has finally ruled in the lawsuit sought by cartoonist Zulkifli Anwar Ulhaque (AKA Zunar) after being arrested under the country’s Sedition Act and Printing Presses and Public Act and his cartoon book collections seized. Human Rights Watch reports that the court has ruled that the arrest was lawful. However the court ruled […]
Most Olympics that I can remember have had a cartoonist or two covering them for their respective papers, but this the first time I’ve heard of an Olympics with a commissioned official artist. Covering the London Olympics and Paralympics is political cartoonist Nicholas Garland.From the London Evening Standard:“The brief is really very wide – he […]
Moroccan cartoonist Khalid Gueddar was detained by police for over six hours and questioned about a caricature he posted on his website that they allege is a insult to Islam. The cartoon in question is actually a re-published cartoon that he drew last year depicting someone tossing lingerie from a minaret. He was arrested in […]
Last week a Jonathan Shapiro (AKA Zapiro) cartoon ran in the Mail and Guardian depicting South African President Jacob Zuma as a penis. For context, the BBC explains that the African National Congress forced an art gallery to remove a painting of President Zuma with exposed genitals which touched off a debate about free expression […]
The Guardian has a great interview with Syrian cartoonist Ali Ferzat whose hands were beaten and left for dead last August by pro-regime thugs trying to quiet his work. In this interview Ali gives a first hand account of what happened. He also talks about returning to cartooning after and it’s physically painful to draw […]
Malaysia cartoonist Zulkiflee Anwar Haque (AKA Zunar) says he has no intention of obeying the recent declaration by the Maylasian Election Commission banning caricatures from this year’s election.Zunar speaking to the Free Malaysia Today:“Cartoons are legal in Malaysia. Nobody said that cartoons are illegal…Who is the EC to decide whether [political cartoons] are serious or […]
Sometimes you can’t make this stuff up. Malaysia’s Election Commission has announced that it is banning caricatures during the next general election.From Free Malaysia Today:According to a Bernama report, Wan Ahmad said that the 2011 Sarawak state election saw “too many” examples of “inappropriate” political caricatures. “The election is a serious matter and we cannot […]
K. Shankar Pillai cartoon depicting Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, the head of a panel drafting the Constitution, on a snail has caused a ruckus of major proportions in India. The Parliament, which deemed the cartoon an insult to the constitution and the Parliament and has ordered it removed from all books – including textbooks that have […]
Four Iranian cartoonists were recipients of this year’s Cartooning for Peace award. The winners were Mana Neyestani, Kianoush, Firoozeh Mozaffari and Hassan Karimzadeh. The award is to honor cartoonists “whose talent, contribution and commitment to the values of tolerance, freedom and peace.” An international jury included three cartoonist: New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly, Swiss cartoonist […]
Iranian cartoonist Mahmoud Shokraiyeh has been sentenced to 25 lashings after drawing an Iranian parliament member in a football jersey. The cartoon appeared in the magazine Nameye Amir.While I’m not 100% certain, the image left might be the offending image.
Venezuelan cartoonist Rayma Suprani has filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s office after receiving threatening emails and tweats after the state-run TV program “La Hojilla” called her work “racist and classist.”Suprani said that the messages issued by late night show The Razorblade, aired in state-run TV, are part of a “well organized state policy […]
Great profile of Syrian cartoonist Ali Farzat by Reuters:That was until a few months before the uprising against Assad began last year, at which point Farzat felt the president had gone too far in stifling freedom of expression and crushing dissent. That’s when it got personal. “I made that shift from using symbols to portraying […]
Ali Ferzat, whose hands were beaten and left for dead by Syrian forces to silence his work, has joined nearly 50 other prominent Syrian artists in a resistance declaration. The statement, published on the French Le Monde newspaper’s website, declares their commitment to a new political order in Syria.Filmmakers, academics, musicians, women and men of […]
Botswana cartoonist Stephen Gaongalelwe was removed from a court proceeding and his drawings confescated after security officers noticed him drawing during the court session. He was there on assignment by a newspaper editor and told he couldn’t get the drawings back without a letter from the editor describing the purpose of the drawings. According to […]
Cartoon Movement editors Matt Bors and Tjeerd Royaards spent a month in Haiti earlier this year with the goal of finding an artist and writers for a comic journalism project to document the issues facing that country after the devastating 2010 earthquake. The first chapter of the book “Tents Beyond Tents” will be released on […]