A video of Tjeerd Royaards speaking about the use of comics journalism in crisis-affected areas at TEDxGenevaChange, on April 5 2012.
The blog of Cartoon Movement, the Internet's #1 publishing platform for high quality political cartoons and comics journalism. Edited by Tjeerd Royaards and Matt Bors.
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Interviews
April 16, 2012
April 10, 2012
An Interview with Cartoonist Steve Greenberg
By Angelo Lopez. This interview was originally published on Everyday Citizen and is reposted with their permission.
Two years ago I attended a convention of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists in Portland and met many great editorial cartoonists from around the country. The very first cartoonist that I met was Steve Greenberg and his wife Roberta. Steve Greenberg is one of the most insightful political cartoonists in this country. Steve has several cartoons published in Southern Californian publications, among them the Ventura County Reporter, the influential L.A. news and politics site LA Observed.com and the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles. His cartoons are distributed in PoliticalCartoons.com. He also contributes to the Cartoon Movement out of the Netherlands, the first American cartoonist invited to join. He is also an award-winning informational graphics artist and illustrator.
Your cartoons do a good job of distilling an issue in a single powerful image. What cartoonists or illustrators influenced your style?
Among my strongest influences were Paul Conrad of the Los Angeles Times (this was the paper we read each morning), who was the master of the powerful, searing-image cartoon, Ron Cobb, cartoonist for the underground L.A. Free Press (I never saw that paper at the time, but saw his work via book collections and a gallery exhibit), whose brilliant work blew me away, and Tony Auth of the Philadelphia Inquirer, who taught me how to communicate well with simpler images. There were many others, including 20th century masters Bill Mauldin (whose work I saw in library collections), Britain's David Low (whose work was in my history textbooks) and the brilliant Don Wright. Plus like many Baby-Boomers, I was quite influenced by Mad magazine.
Your cartoons are very critical of the Republican Party. What are your thoughts on how the Republican primaries have gone? Are you looking forward to the 2012 elections?
As a cartoonist, I look forward to the vast amounts of material these people are likely to provide me... but as a citizen, I'm appalled by their backwards, regressive, anti-science, anti-consumer, anti-Middle Class, anti-equality, anti-disadvantaged, anti-environment, anti-reform and pro-greed positions.
You have some of the most insightful cartoons of Israel and their ongoing conflict with the Palestinians. What's your take on obstacles for peace between the Israelis and Palestinians? What periodicals or writers do you read to learn about issues in Israel?
I cartoon weekly for the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, a gig that sort of just fell into my lap. I read the various opinions there, plus get a constant stream of emails on matters relating to Israel and the Mideast. Many of these are unfailingly pro-Israel, but some are more nuanced and recognize the issues are not one-sided and black and white.
The main obstacles to peace include each side being beholden to domestic interests that would oust them (or worse) if they were seen as too compromising, plus many of the Palestinians seem to have developed a victim mentality that they feel entitles them to not want to compromise (or negotiate) at all.
When I attended the AAEC political cartoonist convention 2 years ago, most cartoonists were telling me that most American political cartoonists are still influential on local issues, but they don't really have much sway on national issues anymore. Yet when one looks outside the U.S., political cartoonists in other countries still have a strong influence on the politics of their country. Recently, Syrian cartoonist Ali Ferzat had his hands broken by government thugs after Ferzat made a cartoon critical of Syrian President Assad. In 2010, Sri Lankan cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda disappeared the day before the Presidential elections in Sri Lanka, just after he did cartoons publicizing the exploitation of the Sri Lankan people. Iranian cartoonist Nikahang Kowsar was arrested in 2001 for doing a cartoon criticizing an Iranian cleric. Are there any American political cartoonists today who still have the same sort of influence on national issues that foreign cartoonists have in their country? If not, what do you think has caused a decline in influence in American political cartoonists?
The nations you mention are all repressive places that lack the same sort of free press that we have, so that strong dissenting voices like cartoonists are seen as threats to the regime that need to be silenced. I don't see any American political cartoonists who have the same sort of influence, and am not sure anyone ever did; perhaps Thomas Nast had the most such impact, in an era of much less literacy. That said, the decline in the (small) influence by American political cartoonists is attributable to the wipeout of so many cartoonists' jobs, the syndicated homogenization of voices in print and the societal change from a small number of mass media voices (one or two daily newspapers per city, three TV networks, a few major magazines) to a highly diffused constellation of thousands of websites and blogs with no one place for a cartoonist to really command the way that, say, Conrad commanded the massively influential L.A. Times of the 1960s and 1970s.
I recently became a cartoonist for a Filipino American newspaper. I'm ashamed to admit though, that I initially didn't know too much about issues in the Filipino American community and have had to do a lot of reading to get up to date on Filipino American issues. You do a lot of cartoons for Jewish publications in Southern California. You seem to have a strong progressive Jewish political point of view. How has been the reception of your cartoons in the Jewish community in your area? Are there any people who've had a particular influence on your political point of view?
I'm a controversial figure within the local Jewish community. The moderate liberals love what I do, but much of the mainstream sees me as too liberal and not sufficiently sympathetic to all that Israel has to go through (while some on the far left see me as too pro-Israel!).
Your cartoons are strongly critical of our financial system and of the growing economic inequalities in our country. These are themes that the recent Occupy Wall Street have tried to highlight. Though your cartoons are sympathetic to the Occupy Wall Street message, a cartoon you did on November 28, 2011 was skeptical of the likelihood of the Occupy protests in overcoming a powerful system and the influence of money. What do you see are the strengths and weaknesses of the Occupy Wall Street movement? What have the local Occupy protest groups been like in your area?
Occupy L.A. was pretty much like it was in the rest of the nation. It's a movement that has no organization, structure or center, just people with some common goals (or complaints)... that's not really a match for powerful, lawyer-laden corporate interests and entrenched political interests, and it hasn't reached enough of a critical mass at this point to have had the impact it hoped for. Money talks louder than ever these days. I was sad to have drawn that cartoon about the futility of "Occupy," but felt it reflected the reality of the situation. That being said, I remember when Howard Jarvis and his tax-reform plans were just a whacko fringe movement... until his Proposition 13 won in 1978.
In the early part of the 20th century, radical political cartoonists like Art Young, Boardman Robinson, and Robert Minor took part demonstrations, rallies and other sorts of political activities in addition to doing political cartoons. Do you participate in protests or political rallies?
No. I'm uncomfortable with that, and am not sure if nominally-objective journalists (which includes editorial cartoonists) should be involved with activism. I've spoken on a few occasions, when invited, to Democratic groups, but that's about it. I can't tell other cartoonists what to do, though... I'm personally just introverted and find my comfort level inside at my own drawing board.
How do you create your cartoons?
I sit down with a sheet of blank paper and see what I sketch out. I usually have a topic or two I want to explore, but don't always know what I want to say about it or even what my overall viewpoint is on the topic — I have a sort of dialogue with myself, with my sketches being the feedback. Sometimes I'll have the viewpoint but not the specific idea, sometimes I'll sketch a good concept and it will firm up or even create my viewpoint. On occasion, I'll sketch a good idea that I can't support politically and throw it out. Sometimes I do know exactly what I want to say and how... those are the easier and often better cartoons.
Once I have my idea, I draw it out reasonably quickly in pencil, then go over it with a ballpoint pen to nail down the image. I take this to my light box and draw carefully on better paper (usually a heavy laser paper) with a Uniball Vision pen, then go over those lines with heavier pens like Micron Pigma ones or a Faber-Castell brush marker. I scan the finished linework and go to work in Photoshop, cleaning up the image and adjusting the pieces if necessary, then adding the shading or coloring. I used to hand-letter everything, but I've gotten lazier and my time is limited, so I more often letter with cartoon fonts or with regular fonts for specific uses.
March 16, 2012
Cartoonists Without Borders
Two of Cartoon Movement's own, Jaume Capdevila and Miguel Villalba Sánchez, better known as KAP and Elchicotriste, have recently set up a non-profit organization that aims to use the power of cartoons for social change: Dibujantes Sin Fronteras (Cartoonists Without Borders).
We talk to Miguel about how and why this organisation, also known as D-SF, was created, what they have done so far, and what's in store for the coming year.
Where and how and why did you get the idea to start D-SF?
In may 2011, Kap and I were invited to participate in an French-Spanish event about editorial cartooning organized by Cartooning for Peace and the Institut Français de Madrid. During a dinner in the presence of the French ambassador, and other colleagues, we decided to create a social platform that would use the skills and connections of cartoonists as a practical and immediate tool to support good causes. We felt the name 'Dibujantes sin fronteras'(Cartoonists without borders) would perfectly reflect the spirit of our goals, and the international dimension.
Kap and I have both have experience in the creation of associations or events related with comic art and cartoons, including cultural association 4gags.org, online magazine El Web Negre, and the Comic Art week in Tarragona.
The organization was established in November 2011. What have you done so far?
Since its formation, D-SF has been involved in two projects; we are currently running a third one.
In November 2011, D-SF was present a a big event for Japan organised in the Congress Palace of Tarragona in the presence of the ambassador of Japan. There we made caricatures for charity, with all the money raised going to the to the victims of the Tsunami.
Another project created by D-SF will be ready this month: a book about the economical crisis with the participation of 45 Catalan cartoonists. All the money made from book sales will go to the to the Arrels Foundation, an organization that helps homeless people.
D-SF is also currently collaborating with an association of bloggers in Tunisia. These were the people that created the momentum for the Arab Spring (like Wilis from Tunis). This association of artists is named Yakayaka; they have an online magazine released every Saturday at yakayaka.org. A set of postcards with the work of a number of Tunisian artists will be prepared by D-SF. The presentation of those postcards will be during a big exhibition for freedom of expression that they are preparing for April. The money raised with the sale of these post cards will go to the victims of the Tunisian revolution.
Cover of the book about the economic crisis, with the work of 45 Catalan cartoonists.
Right now, the main goal of D-SF is to realize practical projects for different causes around the world, using the power of cartoons, without the delay and bureaucracy that characterizes so many non-profit organizations. We can say that we're a drawing 'guerrilla', because of our independence and ability to take immediate action.
Postcards for Tunisia.
January 23, 2012
They Fear the Truth, They Fear Cartoons
Interview with Chinese cartoonist Crazy Crab
By Tjeerd Royaards
As our network of cartoonists has grown, blank spots have become apparent on our global map, often coinciding with countries that do not have the best track record when it comes to freedom of speech. China is one of these blank spots. Therefore we're very happy to to welcome our first Chinese political cartoonist to the network. Crazy Crab (pen name) is the author of Hexie Farm (Crab Farm), a series of political cartoons depicting dictatorship, censorship, and propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party. He started this series in 2009. Due to the censorship, he publishes anonymously. In October 2011, the cartoon series was completely banned in mainland China. We talk to him about cartoons, censorship, and the harmonious society.
There are not many political cartoonists working in China, are there?
No, in fact, there are lots of political cartoonists working in China. Hundreds of political cartoons are published in newspapers every day. However, you can hardly find real political satire about the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) and the government from those cartoons. Cartoonists have to figure out what they can draw before drawing. Due to censorship and self-censorship, most political cartoons in China are boring and pointless.
The portrait of Gaddafi on the Gate of Heavenly Peace. 'Who' refers to Hu Jintao, the current leader of China.
Why did you start doing political cartoons?
Before I drew cartoons, I was a big fan of Calvin and Hobbes, and Snoopy. To be a cartoonist like Bill Watterson was my dream. I never thought about drawing political cartoons until 2009, when I read the news about Mr. Feng Zhenghu and Ms. Tang Fuzhen on the Internet. Mr. Feng’s story was hilarious and Ms. Tang’s is sad. Those stories happened in an era of the so-called “harmonious society” in China. And I found no Chinese cartoonist stood up to support them. So I asked myself, why didn’t you draw something? So I did.
What's the meaning of your pen name 'Crazy Crab', and the title of your cartoon series 'Hexie Farm'?
In Chinese, ‘Hexie ’is a pun of harmony and river crab. Every day, thousands of news, articles, and pictures are censored and deleted by the government. People use “river crab” to make a joke on the Party’s “harmonious society” theory. Nowadays, “Hexie”(river crab or harmony) also means “to delete” or “be censored” on Chinese websites.
Public critic on the Party and the government is dangerous. People might lose jobs, be detained or arrested for doing this. Their family might be threatened too. To speak out the truth, as a real citizen, might be regarded as being crazy.
What do you hope to achieve with your work?
I hope I can speak a different voice through my cartoons to the Chinese audience and to the Party. I want to combine the Chinese history and reality together in my drawings, and figure out how ridiculous the logic behind the Party’s politics is. And I also hope my audience will get a new perspective and start to think differently when they read my cartoons.
No Chinese cartoonist criticized the CCP’s political system in past 60 years. I think it will be changed soon.
Hong Kong and China. There is an annual memorial for the Tian'anmen protest of 1989 in Hong Kong Victoria Park.
Your cartoons were banned in China in October 2011. Why and how did this happen?
At first, they just kept on deleting my cartoons and my blogs. But since October 2011, “Hexie Farm” (in Chinese: 蟹农场) was on the list of Banned Search Terms . That means you cannot find my cartoons using Baidu search engine (the most popular Chinese search engine).
I don’t know why they banned my cartoons. What I know is they fear the truth, they fear people’s laughter, and they fear my cartoons. According to the order from “the Ministry of Truth”, my cartoons are considered as “harmful”. They even required every Chinese website to make double check and make sure that all my cartoons were deleted. I regard this as an honor.
How did this censorship affect you personally? Did you consider giving up political cartooning?
The Party’s censorship policy makes my cartoons impossible to be published in mainland China. In fact, the freedom of speech is affected to a large extent by the CCP even in Hong Kong.
Sometimes I was depressed and angry. How can we breathe freely before such a powerful censor system? But I’ll not give up. I can feel the true power of laughter when my cartoons are reposted and shared on the Internet despite the authority’s determination to delete them.
Where do you publish your work now?
Most of my cartoons are published on my blog, twitter and G+. Some were published by a few Hong Kong based magazines. I am not a columnist cartoonist yet.
How do you see the future of China?
I don’t know. China has a powerful economic engine and the country has been changing dramatically. However, the ghost of Chairmen Mao is still there. Bloody stories like Ms. Tang’s are happening never so often. Does China have a bright future while those tragedies are being censored and quickly forgotten?
What role can political cartoons and cartoonists play in shaping this future?
Political cartoons not only criticize the political system and speak out for those who are fighting for their freedom and justice, but can also make people think from a different perspective. A great cartoon speaks a thousand words. I hope more and more Chinese cartoonists will stand up and speak out.
August 29, 2011
Jerry, the Haitian Banksy
If you've ever been to Port-au-Prince, you will probably have noticed the painted murals that grace various walls and buildings throughout the city. Crammed in between stretches of wall dedicated to Digicel (the omnipresent telecom company) and political messages sprayed haphazardly on various surfaces (guerrilla campaigning often paid for by politicians), these big mural paintings stand out because of their quality and their message.
They are created by graffiti artist Jerry Rosembert (artist name just 'Jerry'). Like his well-known fellow artist Banksy, Jerry uses public space to spread a message about the problems of society. While we were in Haiti, we met up with him at Hotel Oloffson for an informal talk about his work, his vision, and his ambitions.
What stands out in Jerry's work is that is predominantly positive. Where Banksy is an outspoken critic of war, corruption, greed and pollution, Jerry has adopted a more positive message. Many of his murals show the love for Haiti and the Haitian people. The reason for this, he says, is that, amid all the problems that face Haiti, he wants to offer the people a message of hope. In a country that has a history of violent politics, Jerry is reluctant to let politics enter his work. Rather, he tries to create beautiful paintings that will remind all Haitians, both rich and poor, that they share the same country, and with it, the same problems. According to Jerry, the only way to let the country move forward is to unite all Haitians to work towards a common goal. No easy feat in a country where the divide between rich and poor is truly enormous.
Slideshow of Jerry's work
Although we could understand his reasoning, we (being editorial cartoonists) do feel Jerry's work could use a dose of social criticism. In Port-au-Prince there are as many empty walls as there are problems worth drawing about. Although he believes making beautiful murals means his work lasts longer (some of his more critical pieces have been painted over), and will thus have more of an impact, he is planning to do more critical work in the future, focusing on the tent camps, the lack of education and the problems of rebuilding.
At the moment, Jerry is the only graffiti artist doing 'editorial' murals of this kind. The main reason: it's dangerous. Jerry says that the Haitian police force has a shoot-first-ask-questions-later policy that effectively deters people from taking up brush and spray can. Jerry makes most of his work at night, using the headlights of his car to provide the light to work (street lights are very scarce in Port-au-Prince). For his next project(s), he not only wants to make work that's more critical, but also work that is bigger. In order to do this safely, he plans to obtain permission for the surfaces he will paint on, and also inform the police beforehand.
Jerry's work is widely known, but Jerry himself tries to stay out of the public limelight. In two years time, he says, he might make himself known to the public. In the meantime, he prefers to visit the site of his murals on the morning after he made it, gauging the response of the public to his work incognito. He may not be known by most Haitians, he is known in the NGO community, and he makes most of his his income by painting murals in camps, at schools and community centers. One of his next gigs? Doing a mural for Digicel...
Tjeerd Royaards
July 18, 2011
Interview: Doaa Eladl
Doaa Eladl is the most visible female cartoonist in Egypt. Drawing for the daily newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm, she works alongside four male cartoonists. Freed from the censorship of the past, she's become a strong voice in a post-revolutionary country.
I met Doaa at the end of a three week visit to the U.S., sponsored by the State Department, where she traveled with a group of Middle Eastern cartoonists as the only woman. We first met in Portland, then a few days later in St. Petersburg, Florida, where the annual AAEC convention was held. I interviewed her on Saturday, July 9 , the day before she was set to return home. We spoke through an interpreter.
Matt Bors: When we met in Portland, you mentioned that during the revolution the presses were stopped, so you went out in the streets and distributed your cartoons by hand. Can you retell that story?
Doaa Eladl: I didn't do anything extraordinary during the revolution. I was just like any other Egyptian citizen: I went and protested. Some of them lost an eye or had other injuries. I am always encouraging people to go and demonstrate and protest in the streets so on the 25th of January I thought it was time for me to participate in the revolution. However, I didn't do any heroic acts. Some other people sacrificed a lot and lost their lives.
I drew some cartoons and took them, along with some that were drawn by my colleagues, and printed them out and distributed them in Tahrir Square. Most of the Egyptian people couldn't see them because at that time they didn't allow us to print or publish anything and the internet was shut down. I have another colleague, a journalist, they went to the square to shoot video clips about what was happening and they had their legs broken. So I think they are more heroic than me.
Bors: Yeah, well, I was just gonna say that even though you may not think what you did was heroic, that we were all watching and everybody thought that Egyptians were very brave.
Eladl: The Egyptian people, they didn’t have anything to be afraid of, nothing left that could be taken from them. Those Egyptians, they did not have a job, they did not have any money. Especially the youth. There was no other option. They did not have anything more they thought they could lose. So they went to the streets.
Bors: The revolution is still going on, really. Egyptians are still occupying Tahrir Square to pressure the interim government to implement their demands. What are the changes you would like to see come from this? I'm thinking specifically of media reforms.
Eladl: I don’t think the change has reached the media yet since some media outlets still serve the cronies of the previous government, especially Al Muher Channel, which was owned by a member of National Party, the ex-government party. Some people are really furious over the actions of this channel because it instigates people–they are not representing the real goals of the revolution.
Bors: You mentioned to me before, under Mubarak, you could not draw him, or you would draw only an authority figure to represent the president, not Mubarak specifically.
Eladl: We had been informed there was a red line and we should not cross it. I did a few, limited illustrations of Mubarak. We would criticize Mubarak by using symbols, like a crown, and he would be wearing a crown and dressed like a king.
Bors: Did your editors ever lean on you to change something before it was published or cancel a cartoon?
Eladl: If they asked me, I would never change any work. If an illustration or a sketch was not approved, I would cancel it and start a new one. It never happened a lot where they would cancel my illustration and ask for a new one. Only a few times.
Bors: You do 5 cartoons a week for a newspaper. Do you go into the office or do you work from home?
Eladl: When I started, it was a mess to do all the work from the office, but after that they started to understand that cartooning is a different kind of profession. We can do the work from other places and now I usually send it by email.
Bors: There were numerous cartoonists working for state newspapers who supported Mubarak, no? Are they still around?
Eladl: They changed and are now pro-revolution. They are like Transformers from the movie. They are trying to be part of the wave, but the Egyptian people are smart and understand what they are up to.
Bors: One of our Egyptian cartoonists, Sherif Arafa, brought an amusing issue to my attention with one of his cartoons portraying Colonel Sanders of KFC as a Ché revolutionary. Mubarak said KFC was handing out free meals to get people to protest? Apparently since they are an American company the idea was they were working with the CIA or something?
Eladl: Yes, and Israel. I never ate at KFC because I saw it as an American company and I didn't want to support it, but after Mubarak denounced it as helping the revolution, we all figured why not eat there?
Bors: This is your first time in the Unites States, and you leave tomorrow to head back home. What are your impressions of America and Americans from your last three weeks?
Eladl: During my presentation [to the AAEC], I tackled some topics that criticize Americans and I know there is a difference between the American people and the foreign policy, but what really frustrates me is the carelessness of Americans. They really don’t, you know, care about others outside the country. They don’t know what’s going on in the other parts of the world. They do not care about their countrymen who die on a daily basis in Iraq and Afghanistan. They didn’t learn from Vietnam.
Bors: We're here at the AAEC convention in Florida. It's a low turnout this year, but probably the most editorial cartoonists you have ever met in one place. What is your impression of American editorial cartooning?
Eladl: I met two kinds of editorial cartoonists. Some of them, they deal with local and domestic issues and they never focus on U.S. foreign policy. One of them is Tom Toles, and I feel like he is not serving the people. And the others deal with international issues and understand the oppression and the suffering caused to other nations. One of them is Kal in The Economist. Really, I've started to change my mind and, you know what? I am going to be an international cartoonist. On the professional level, I was really impressed with Callahan's work--he talks about serious issues. I was so excited to meet such an iconic figure. The one lady, Jen [Sorensen], I felt like she deals more with international issues.
Bors: Yeah, Jen's good stuff. How many female editorial cartoonists would you say there are in Egypt?
Eladl: There are two others, but they are only starting out. I don't want to say they are professionals because they only started in this field last year.
Bors: So... there's you.
Eladl: You could say that.
Bors: Well, there are not many more female editorial cartoonists in America. Maybe four.
Eladl: Actually, I was shocked to find this out because I thought there was only a limited number of female cartoonists in Egypt. But when I visited the United States I found the same issue--only four female editorial cartoonists! So now I've had to change my view. (laughter)
Bors: You know, there was talk in the AAEC board meeting about opening up membership to international cartoonists.
Eladl: This is really great. However, why did you think of it just now, why not before?
Bors: Actually, it's been discussed before but people had wanted to keep it closed to Americans. As time goes on, more people want to have it open to international cartoonists. Maybe because there are less and less cartoonists working in the states.
Eladl: I think that would be great.
Bors: You've done a lot of work on the revolution, obviously. And you tend to focus on women's rights and free speech. What other issues are you drawn to?
Eladl: All the issues that concern Egyptian citizen. I deal a lot with women's issues, gender rights, but I think I focus a lot of my work on Egyptian citizens and, because I think any reform should start with the Egyptian citizen, trying to get them to participate in this process.
The purpose of editorial cartooning is to awaken people. Some media outlets, whether in the United States or Egypt, distort the facts. And normally the media is controlled either by government, by investors, by the people who have the money. So cartoons, they should look into issues and make it clear whether it is black or white, or whether there is a grey area. People can look and distinguish between sincere and honest cartoonists and from other kinds that are not. Even an historian can be under pressure and to fake the writing of history. But cartoonists, we have the freedom to say what we want.
Artwork © Doaa Eladl. Photo courtesy of Stephanie McMillan
March 7, 2011
Hungarian Cartoonists Under Fire from Repressive New Law
Elected last year with a super-majority in Hungary's parliament, the right-wing Fidesz party and Prime Minister Viktor Orban passed a far-reaching media law giving the government broad power to regulate and fine media outlets it deems unbalanced. Hungarian newspapers printed blank front pages in protest and an international outcry soon followed.
Under the law, massive fines can be levied at news outlets for unbalanced reporting and offenses to "human dignity" and "public morality." Who has crossed the line of these incredibly fuzzy terms will be determined by the Media Council, composed entirely of members of the governing Fidesz party, who have already launched an inquiry into the left-liberal broadcaster Tilos Radio for playing a song from rapper Ice-T said to adversely effect the welfare of children.
While the EU declared the law as antithetical to its values, Hungary began its six-month term as rotating presidency of the European Union. Under pressure from the European Commission, Budapest revised some of the provisions, exempting reporters from foreign news outlets and blogs from mandatory balance in their coverage. These mostly cosmetic changes seemed to have dampened the EU uproar while keeping the core of the law intact for broadcasters and newspapers within the country.
I talked with three Hungarian editorial cartoonists and illustrators--Gábor Pápai, Joe Békési, and Péter Zsoldos--about how the media law will affect their work.
Matt Bors: The implications of this law are frightening if fully implemented. Assaulting the "human dignity" of politicians is what editorial cartoonists do for a living. How might this new media law effect cartoons?
Gábor Pápai: The consequences of the law are scary indeed. However, we did get unexpectedly strong support from the European Union. This can keep those in power from the abusing it for a while, but I fear they will use it against us once the EU presidency is over. I have a feeling, like when the abusive head of family is busy nodding to the policeman’s warning, but he can’t wait for the door to close so he can remain with his family. Regretfully the EU is not going in the direction of a federal union that I would prefer.
Joe Békési: This law is not dangerous to specific individuals, but editorial offices, publishing houses, and television channels that can be ruined or forced to continually self-censor. It will kill investigative journalism.
Péter Zsoldos: Since most of my work is caricatures, I would be strongly affected. I find those parts of the law specially alarming that give the right of deciding whether the content has been against the rules after the publication of the item. The trick is that the rules are flexible and all this is up to the Media Authority to decide what they find unbalanced.
They have the right to impose fines which must be paid, if the court doesn’t annul it, within thirty days. Knowing how the Hungarian courts work, these decisions will take years. The Media Authority’s political composition is also alarming, as it was proposed and voted by the governing party, excluding the other parties from proposing candidates.
Bors: What kind of restrictions--legally or editorially--are already placed on editorial cartoonists? Have you enjoyed a good deal of freedom to go after who and what you wanted? There are always editors afraid to rock the boat, but I wonder most about politicians. Have they felt content to throw their weight around before in restricting a free press?
Zsoldos: Until now, theoretically we had total freedom. And seldom did any official retribution happen. I must say, however, that there were many cases when after a caricature of an influential public figure was published, the paper suddenly stopped asking me for drawings. My colleague Fenekovács László had a caricature for which his paper was severely fined by the court for hurting privacy rights.
Békési: The promise of incredibly high fines for elusive things keeps editors from attacking power. The same applies for cartoonists. As you mentioned, they will fear rocking the boat. At the end of the eighties I had a little illegal print shop where I made leaflets and so on so I was feeling personally what I am speaking about. Now we went back into the past with that law. Lawmakers hope the terror of the high fines will enhance self-restrictions. It is a great trick of lawmakers that they want to use it after June when they'll be over the rotating presidency. Up to this date I don't know about any penalties.
Pápai: Although I have been drawing political caricatures daily for the last two decades, I never encountered any ban or expectations of a political nature. We did have hostile acquisitions at some of the papers where I was published, but in those cases I simply walked to other papers. I can proudly say that I could always draw whatever I wanted.
Bors: Could you describe the state of editorial cartooning in Hungary. Is there much oppositional or hard-hitting work? Do media figures and politicians in Hungary take note of this work and it is seen as important to the general public?
Zsoldos: The Hungarian caricaturists are just as divided politically as our society. But basically we are free. It is mostly the publishers who tell you how far you can go with a caricature.
Pápai: Very few people are doing political caricature in Hungary. Most of these are now in the opposition, which can frustrate those in power. Politicians haven’t given opinions on my drawings directly, but the right-wing media, which is supportive of the present government, often attacks my work.
The deputy editor-in-chief of Magyar Hírlap, who I used to work for before it changed its political direction, compared my work to the Mohammed-cartoons, and he did not conceal that he sympathized with those who issue fatwas. In this article he incited violence against me. People commenting there publicized my personal data and address.
Another newspaper close to the government, Magyar Nemzet asked how long I will be allowed to depict the Prime Minister in a bad light. This is before the new media law. Because of all this I feel like these drawings are gaining importance, and drawing more and more attention.
Bors: How are your colleges at newspapers who work as reporters and editors taking this? Is this seen as an outrageous overreach that will be reversed or only the beginning of a more long-lasting and further reaching campaign against a free press.
Békési: That is the fear and it is a very bad example in the EU.
Pápai: Around me most people feel that they are in this for the long haul, and that the government will exert a total control of public speech. This, however, is destined to fail, and even if their plans for a single-party constitution materialize, the quickly eroding power will be followed by a first constitutional amendment, which will be about freedom of speech in Hungary too.
Zsoldos: On public radio, Mong Attila and the editor of the program were immediately sacked because they protested the media law with a minute of silence. This is definitely an abuse, especially because the law will be in force only after June 1st, after the end of the EU presidency. And this sacking was decided not by the media authority, but by the leadership of the radio. Since then several Facebook groups have been created to protest this decision online, and in street demonstrations as well.
Bors: Will this law and its potential consequences change anything about what you do?
Békési: No, I don’t think so. I retired.
Zsoldos: It will definitely influence my publishing possibilities. The law threatens such high fines that it could immediately lead a paper into bankruptcy. Also, the “flexibility” of the law makes it impossible to decide what is unbiased. Compared to this situation, it would be even better if we had a censor at each company: this way at least we would know what is allowed and what is not.
Pápai: I don’t think it can stop my work. The main part of the work will be moved to the Internet. I might even have to work from abroad for a Hungarian audience. Marx says this about destructive power: the shoe cannot stop the growth of the foot, it can only distort it.
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Gábor Pápai is the cartoonist for Népszava in Budapest. Joe Békési served as president of the Hungarian Cartoonist Association. He began cartooning in the late 1980s as part of the underground Sumizdat movement. Péter Zsoldos works a cartoonist and caricaturist for various publications in and outside of Hungary.
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The interviews were conducted separately and edited for length. A special thanks to Tibor Várady, Veronika Kozma, and Redjade for translating.
Image credits: Zsoldos self-portrait, Békési self-potrait, Pápai on the Victor Orbán, Békési on the EU, Pápai on Gaddafi, Zsoldos on the media law. All images © their respective creators.
March 1, 2011
Interview with Sherif Arafa
Editorial cartoonists may take their ability to freely respond to events in their own country for granted. For Egyptian cartoonist Sherif Arafa, his most scathing work was drawn only for his own amusement, then locked in a drawer where even his editor couldn't see it. For years, Arafa worked at Rosalussef, a state-run paper in Egypt, where he carefully butted up against the line of acceptable criticism--a line that once crossed has had grave consequences for journalists and opposition members in Egypt.
Arafa is accomplished in a number of fields. He's a dentist as well as a popular author and motivational speaker that has lectured around the Arab world. For the last six months he has been employed as a staff cartoonist in the United Arab Emirates, where he is currently living. I interviewed Sherif about the uprising in Egypt, the censorship he faced there, and what he hopes will come from the revolution.
Matt Bors: You were prohibited from drawing the former President of Egypt your entire career. On February 14 we were happy to publish your first cartoon depicting him. Did you ever think you would be able to draw Hosni Mubarak?
Sherif Arafa: It was impossible to cartoon Mubarak in my newspaper. But I made many cartoons about Mubarak that I kept in a locked drawer! To be honest, I didn't think I could publish them before Mubarak's death. I expected this revolution to happen when his son tried to take his position. The funny thing is, every year I make a cartoon called "The New Year Wishes" where I draw impossible things happening, like Israel declaring they will build settlements to give to Palestinians or Bin Laden apologizing to American and offering to build another Twin Towers. This year I was drawing another impossible thing, a book cover with a title "I Was The President by Hosni Mubarak." This was joke month ago! I didn't even finish this cartoon because it was too dangerous.
Bors: Until now you have had to criticize Mubarak in a roundabout way. Explain a little about "The Responsible" character you created to address the regime. In using that character were there still times where ideas were shot down by your editors?
Arafa: This character (the responsible, the official--same word in Arabic) refers directly to Mubarak. You can see this in his physical characteristics and age, and the context of the cartoon. Sometimes I made him play other roles, such as minister or officer, just to defend myself if something happened. Of course, I couldn't publish all the cartoons because sometimes it was so clear that I meant Mubarak. They became more sensitive to my cartoons when a top official (I don't know who) complained about them.
Bors: In your previous interview with VJ Movement, you were asked what would happen if you depicted Mubarak and your answer, "no comment," spoke volumes. Can you tell us now what would have happened to you?
Arafa: The Egyptian cartoonist Essam Hanafy has been arrested because he criticized a minister. The oppositions writer Abdel Haleem Kandeel was kidnapped, tortured and thrown naked at night on a desert highway. You could be fired, arrested on false charges, prevented from appearing on TV (remember I'm a motivational speaker as well!) or exhausted through fines until you to close your business--and don't forget the emergency law that allowed Mubarak to arrest anyone at anytime without a reason. All of these "options" crossed my mind when Abigail asked this question.
Bors: The military is in charge of the government for the time being. They say that within the next six months they will lift the emergency law that has been in place for 30 years and set up multi-party elections. Do you trust them to transition Egypt the way the protest movement wants? How would you like to see a new government set up?
Arafa: We trust the military, Matt. The protesters cheered up when they saw the military coming on the streets. may be it's something in our collective unconscious, that we know that the Egyptian military will never harm people because it's one of their highest values. I believe that the military really intend to set free elections and reforms. But the problem is the remnants of the regime who are planning to make a counter-revolution to save their authority. The next government should be civil and democratic. I don't think Egyptians will ever support a theocratic state. The only reason people were supporting The Muslim Brotherhood was that Mubarak was cruelly suppressed them, which made people sympathize since they were the only 'real' opposition against Mubarak. They have declared they want a civil state as well. For me, I will wait to see who has a better plan to vote for, although I hope the Noble prize winners Dr. El-Baradei and Dr. Ahmed Zewail run in the next elections.
Bors: In the western media a lot of was made of the use of social media by the protesters. What do you think of it being called a Facebook revolution?
Arafa: I prefer to call it The Egyptian revolution. In dictatorships, people create an informal society, meaning that when there is no real parliament or real media, people tend to create their own leaders and their own media. We have jokes about corrupted top officials--everyone knows these jokes! You don't say them in media, but they became part of the pop culture against the regime's will. So people talk and tell each other what they cannot say in media by using Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo! groups, mailing lists, or any other way that let people communicate and think freely together.
Bors: You mentioned working as an inspirational speaker (in addition to being a dentist). What do you focus on? Is there any link between motivating people in that regard and how you view the purpose of your political cartoons?
Arafa: I'm not practicing dentistry now for time management reasons. It's difficult to work as a cartoonist and self-development specialist at the same time. As a cartoonist you focus on criticism and making fun of the problem, but as a self development author you have to be rational and give solutions. Completely different mentality! But I've made use of it. When I published a theory called Emotions Control System® I used editorial cartoons and caricature to explain part of it. I use cartoons in my lectures and a sense of humor in my book. For instance, some of my books titles are Why People Are Stupid and Get Rid Of Your Mind!
Bors: Wait--getting rid of your mind sounds like a bad thing.
Arafa: No, Matt, believe me it's not. Scientifically, our minds are messed up! Human cognition is primitive and can be deceived or misled easily. Our subconscious mind is playing tricks on us all the time. The best way is to get rid of your mind and follow the instructions to get you a brand new one! Of course I don't mean it literally, but it's my way of simplifying the boring scientific theories.
Bors: Were there any cartoons on the uprising in Egypt--from Egyptians or your colleagues around the world--that stick in your mind as being particularly inspiring or powerful?
Arafa: The cartoonists on Cartoon Movement did a pretty good job and I thank them so much for being excited about democracy in Egypt. I love the Egyptian cartoonist Amro Selim because he directly makes fun of everyone. He works at a private newspaper so he has more freedom to draw what he wants. He was so funny that one of his cartoons became a topic of discussion in the fake parliament to find the best way to punish him. Fortunately, the parliament was shut down after the revolution! But I always get surprised by the Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff. He was drawing a very local and intimate cartoons about Egypt. Some of them are hard to understand if you are not Egyptian. He was supporting the revolution even before it started! I don't know how he was so passionate about the local Egyptian details. If he is reading this, I want to tell him: Good job!
Bors: In recent months you took a staff job at a paper in the United Arab Emirates so you weren't in Cairo during the uprising. Now that Mubarak is out, would you like return home and cartoon there?
Arafa: I cried in my office after calling my friend in Tahrir square! I wished I was there, but I was the only Egyptian cartoonist who has internet when Mubarak cut it in Egypt. So I used it to publish my cartoons to get worldwide attention against him. I wasn't sure if it was safe to visit Egypt anymore because of my cartoons. But now, I'm planning to visit Egypt frequently for my lectures and book signings. Now I want to do my best for my beloved country, whether I'm living in it or not.
