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October 2020

Winners of World Press Cartoon

WPCThe winners, with screenshots of their publication on Cartoon Movement, showing the website before our relaunch this summer.

This weekend, the winners of the world’s most prestigious cartoon competition, World Press Cartoon, were announced. We are delighted that two of the winners are cartoonists whose work was published on Cartoon Movement.

Our congratulations to Halit Kurtulmus Aytoslu for winning the first prize in the category editorial cartoon with this cartoon published on Cartoon Movement in 2019. And also to Pedro Silva for winning third prize in the category caricature for his brilliant depiction of Christine Lagarde.

You can see all the winners on the website of World Press Cartoon. You might see some other names you know from our website, such as Ant, Pedro X. Molina, Marilena Nardi and Dario Castillejos. It strengthens our belief that in 10 years, we have managed to build a community of many of the world’s best cartoonists.


Political cartoons versus memes

Matt Wuerker, staff cartoonist of Politico, talks to adam.the.creator, who makes memes for a living. Are memes the future of political cartooning?

In 2019, Jennifer Grigiel argued in this article, yes, memes are the new, more democratic way, to make visual political satire, so cartoonists are becoming obsolete.

But are there any unique qualities to the format of the editorial cartoon, largely unchanged since it was invented, that set it apart from memes, and thus give it a future? This video certainly isn't the end of the discussion, but a nice addition to it.


What a cartoon can do

4. Gargantua by Honoré_Daumier

Gargantua by Honoré Daumier (1831)

CM’s editor Tjeerd Royaards writes about the power of satire for 5. The way cartoons are perceived, feared and responded to by leaders, especially those less inclined towards democracy, hasn't changed in the past 200 years. Dictators try to silence satire only because they know it's effective, because they fear it. That's the best reason to keep laughing at them.

Read the full article here.


Freedom of expression and political satire are in danger

LibexPart of the gallery of 55 semi-finalists, click the image to see the full gallery.

More and more journalists and editorial cartoonists are victims of murders, assaults, kidnappings, physical intimidation, imprisonment, arrests, travel bans, police harassment, politically motivated lawsuits, asset freezing or seizure, vandalism, cyber-attacks, online harassment, blacklisting and bullying.

The Librexpression centre for freedom of expression (Libex) has organized a cartoon competition on the threats that this fundamental right, and the political satire which is an expression of it are currently facing even in Europe.

You can see the 55 semi-finalists on the website of Voxeurop. The finalist cartoons will be presented on Voxeurop on 17 September.


Drawing lines: humor, free speech and hate speech

Tnt_pencil__marian_kamenskyImage by Marian Kamensky

Online event - 21 September 2020, 15:00-16:30 (CEST Time)

Freedom of humor and satire is an essential component of democratic life; but at the same time, some forms of humor can be a vehicle for hateful or anti-democratic messages. How can we draw a line between free speech and hate speech, when it comes to humor? Answering these questions is particularly difficult in the case of highly condensed (and often ambiguous) forms of visual humor, such as cartoons or memes.

On September 21st, the members of the Constructive Advanced Thinking team ‘Cartoons in Court’ will present their project and discuss humor controversies from an interdisciplinary perspective, with special but not exclusive regard to cartoons. The event will start with a presentation by the team members, followed by an open Q&A.

Speakers: Alberto Godioli (University of Groningen, PI); Vicky Breemen (Utrecht University); Andrew Bricker (Ghent University); Ana Pedrazzini (ECyC IPEHCS CONICET – Comahue National University); Tjeerd Royaards (Cartoon Movement).

Host: Andrey Demidov (IAS CEU Budapest)

The ZOOM link to the event: here

The project is supported by the Constructive Advanced Thinking (CAT) program, an initiative by the Network of European Institutes for Advanced Study (NetIAS). IAS CEU is a host institution for the team 'Cartoons in Court'. The online event is co-sponsored by Cartoon Movement.