Our cartoonists are almost exclusively drawing about the coronavirus these days. We publish one cartoon on our homepage each day and share another one later in the day on our social media channels. This means loads and loads of cartoons do not get the attention from us that they deserve. Here we have made a top 10 of cartoons that have not had our attention yet; they offer perspectives on the various aspects of the coronavirus crisis. We think these cartoons are great, but they are a somewhat arbitrary selection, so we encourage you to also go and take a look in our newsroom.

1. Sanouni Imad - Morocco

This cartoon shows us the sad reality of the current epidemic, Many people will die.

2. Rafat Alkhateeb - Jordan

The virus quickly transformed a globalized world into one where all borders are closed.

3. Paolo Calleri - Germany

And a world in which many people felt a compelling urge to stock up on toilet paper, for some reason.

4. Mohamed Ajeg - Morocco

Not the most popular perspective right now, but is the world trying to tell us something?

5. Mohamed Ajeg - Morocco

Another one by the same cartoonist, because this cartoon shows the reality for many people: how do you stay home when you do not have a home?

6. Hilal Özcan - Turkey

And those of us who do have a home face another challenge.

7. Antonio Rodriguez

We should not forgot this crisis also showed us the best of humanity: love and collective solidarity have survived and thrived despite lockdowns.

8. Seyran Caferli - Azerbaijan

Of course the coronavirus could just be the beginning…

9. Mansoure Dehghani - Iran

Together we will overcome the crisis.

10. Mahnaz Yazdani - Iran

But we should not forget the true heroes that put their life on the line every day to save the lives of others.

Cartoon by Gatis Sluka

In light of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, in close consultation with UNESCO, has decided to postpone the World Press Freedom Conference 2020. This also means that the cartoon competition/exhibition will be postponed. The jury did convene this week to select the cartoons that will be part of the exhibition and the winner, but we have chosen to also postpone the announcement of the winner and shortlist of 10 selected cartoons.

Next week, we will publish the longlist of 75 cartoons that were chosen by our jury. 10 of these will be printed on large panels; the rest will be shown digitally during the conference.

We thanks everyone for participating and hope for your understanding.

In January, we had a small exhibition at THIMUN (The Hague International Model United Nations), a gathering of 3,500 secondary school students from all over the world at the World Forum in The Hague to think and talk about the world’s problems.

This year's exhibition theme was 'Advancing and Securing Democracy'. One of the cartoons featured was a 2014 cartoon by Tjeerd Royaards about freedom in China.

The delegation from China wasn't happy with this cartoon and wrote an official complaint letter. How much of this is at the initiative of (indoctrinated) students and how much is enforced by teachers and/or the Chinese embassy (which is practically next to the World Forum) is unclear, but to state China is a democracy that 'respects and defends freedom of speech', while accusing the cartoonist of not portraying the truth sounds, to us, like a statement of 1984's Ministry of Truth.

Read the complete letter here.

Cartooning for Peace and Cartoon Movement will be at the World Press Freedom Conference 2020. A number of international cartoonists will join us for panel sessions, workshops and live drawing. More information will follow soon.

Cartoon competition update

The entry period for the  Journalism without fear or favour cartoon competition ended on March 1. Although the period for sending cartoons was just 19 days, we received 600 eligible entries from over 200 cartoonists from around the globe.

The jury will convene next week to select the cartoons that will be exhibited at the World Forum and to determine the winner that will be invited to The Hague in April.

The jury is formed by Zunar, Pedro X. Molina and Niels Beugeling.

Zunar is a renowned cartoonist from Malaysia. In 2015 he faced up to 43 years in prison for criticizing the Malaysian government. The charges were dropped after the change of government in 2018.

Pedro X. Molina is an internationally acclaimed political cartoonist who fled his native Nicaragua during a crackdown on journalists and government critics in 2018.

Niels Beugeling is the former director of the Press Museum in Amsterdam. He is the chairman of the Press & Print Foundation, dedicated to promoting editorial cartoons through exhibitions and by giving out an annual award for the best political cartoon in the Netherlands.