Cartooning for Peace has released a report on the situation of cartoonists worldwide 2016/2017:

Whether their cartoons concern politics, the economy, sports or religion, cartoonists are confronted with the same threats as newspaper, radio and television journalists who cover sensitive subjects.

This report proposes a double approach: a country-based approach to contextualize cartoonists’ relationship to freedom of expression and an angle on emblematic cartoonists' cases.

Topics covered are: censorship (Vilma/Ecuador; Aseem Trivedi/India), legal proceedings (Bonil/Ecuador; Zunar/Malaysia), abusive dismissal (Gado/Kenya; Rayma/Venezuela), physical assaults (Ali Ferzat/Syria), imprisonment (Musa Kart/Turkey; Islam Gawish/Egypt), and death threats (Osama Hajjaj/Jordan; Khalid Gueddar/Morocco).

Cartoonists defy threats in order to inform us on the state of democracy during periods of insecurity and trouble.

In a context where violations at freedom of expression have worsened, it is indispensable to give the floor to those who take up the pencil, in order to pay tribute to their stories and struggles and to thank them so that we do not close our eyes on what is happening in the rest of the world.

This report is based on the information collected by Cartooning for Peace’s watchdog and alert unit and the work of external contributors (Vladimir Vasak, investigative reporter for Arte; Jonathan Guyer, specialist on satire in the Middle East; Terry Anderson from Cartoonists Rights Network International).

The report is available in English here and in French here.

Cover image by Riber (Sweden).