Cartoon Movement

Lector in Fabula - European Cultural Festival

We spent the weekend in Conversano, a town in southern Italy that hosts Lector in Fabula, an annual European cultural festival. Leading up to the festival, Librexpression, an organization dedicated to cartoons and freedom of speech, organized a cartoon contest with the theme power and information in the digital age. First prize was awarded to Nikola Listes from Croatia, and we're proud that second and third prize went to two of our members, Emanuele Del Rosso and Fadi Abou Hassan respectively.

In addition to the award ceremony, the festival also featured a cartoon exhibition of the best cartoons sent in for this exhibition and a panel discussing last year's news through satire, featuring Marco De Angelis from Italy, Tjeerd Royaards from the Netherlands and Doaa Eladl from Egypt.

(Photo by Francesco Paolo Gassi)

 

The winning cartoons

 

1st prize - Nikola Listes

 

2nd prize - Emanuele Del Rosso

 

3rd prize - Fadi Abou Hassan

 

Visit the website of Librexpression to see the 15 best cartoons, as selected by the jury. Here are some additional photos of the festival:

Panel discussion with Doaa Eladl, Marco De Angelis and Tjeerd Royaards. Photo by Mimmo Donghia.

 

Cartoon exhibition. Photo by Antonio Giancaspro.

 

The award ceremony.

 

Fadi Abou Hassan from Norway.

 

Doaa Eladl from Egypt. Photo by Mattia Ramunni.

New Cartoonists from Bangladesh and Romania

We are very fortunate to welcome two more talented cartoonists to our community:

Liviu Stanila - Romania

Liviu Stanila is a cartoonist and children’s books illustrator from Romania. He has won numerous awards for his work.

Asifur Rahman - Bangladesh

Asifur Rahman is a cartoonist from Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is currently working as a cartoonist for the Daily Samakal, a national daily in Bangladesh.

Pedro Molina Wins Courage in Cartooning Award

Nicaraguan cartoonist and Cartoon Movement member Pedro X. Molina has won this year’s Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award.

From the website of CRNI:

Pedro X. Molina of Nicaragua is a long-standing proponent of freedom of expression and a tireless ally of cartoonists in trouble elsewhere. Of late he has had cause to chronicle the deteriorating condition of society under President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo. As citizens took to the streets to protest, in Molina’s own words, “several years of suffering electoral frauds, selective repression, attempts to censor the internet, mismanagement of environmental disasters and the enactment of a social security law that curtails the rights of current and future pensioners” the Nicaraguan government has embarked upon increasingly brutal crack-downs.

Human rights groups’ reports differ on the scale but it is apparent several hundred have died in the violence. Despite all the unrest and direct threats and attempts at intimidation by masked paramilitaries working for the regime, Molina has continued to produce hard-hitting cartoons confronting the abuses of the Nicaraguan government. The CRNI board feels that Pedro exemplifies exactly the courageous kind of cartoonist we wish to honor with our award.

The decision to recognize Molina this year is further evidence of the lurch toward authoritarianism that has gripped nations around the world and fits the pattern of cartoonists reporting – along with their colleagues across all mass media – an increasingly hostile environment to journalism and satire.

 

United Nations Human Rights Cartoon Project

This year, the world celebrates the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). To celebrate this, we have partnered with the United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR) and invited cartoonists around the world to illustrate the 30 articles of the UDHR.

We have received over 500 cartoons. Out of all these submissions, we have selected two cartoons per article. We now invite you to vote for your favorite(s) per article in our official selection newsroom.

The cartoons that illustrate the 30 articles best will be shown in an exhibition to celebrate 70 years of human rights.

To vote, you will need to register (it's free, and we do not use your email or other data for any other purposes). The voting period will last until October 20th.

 

An Open Letter to Mark Zuckerberg

Cartoonists have fallen victim to Facebook moderation (or in stronger terms: censorship) more and more in recent months. Here are two (1,2) recent examples of cartoons that were removed from Facebook, probably because they include symbols that refer to Nazi Germany.

Even more serious is a recent cartoon by Thai cartoonist Stephff about Myanmar and the Rohingya that was deleted by Facebook. In this instance the most likely scenario is that the cartoon was removed because it was reported by someone who did not agree with the opinion stated in the cartoon. This does beg the question: did this cartoon cross a line (by showing graphic violence), or is this a case of censorship by Facebook, removing critical journalistic content? We think the latter. Stephff has written an open letter to Facebook, which was also published by Thai newspaper The Nation:

 I have been a daily political cartoonist since 20 years now . On Thursday evening I received a notice from Facebook that I have violated Facebook rules by publishing on my Facebook page 'Stephff Tribal Art' the cartoon above , therefore it was suppressed and I am asked to comply with 'Facebook rules' or else.

There was no possibility to argue - no button I could press to defend myself against this serious misunderstanding . What are these 'Facebook rules' exactly? That we cannot complain about a genocide in the making because some ultranationalist, xenophobic Burmese netizens have complained to Facebook? What about those same netizens who are spreading a campaign of hatred against the Rohingyas with the help of their compatriot cartoonists? What about all these racist Burmese people who have come to insult me on my page each time I have published a cartoon about the Rohingya tragedy?

What is exactly Facebook's policy? To stop the people who try to bring some substantial fight against bad things happening in this World and allow only people who publish pictures of their lunch?

Why don't you employ real people with a brain to judge if a cartoon is racist or if - on contrary - it fights against racism. Because apparently your stupid algorithms are far from being able to tell the difference. I can't believe you are siding with the very same people who are supporting the oppression and killings of the Rohingya people. Is this the 'better World' Facebook is trying to build where we cannot criticize harshly a genocide in the making?

Statement About Prophet Muhammad Cartoon Contest

After receiving numerous threats of violence, condemnations and calls for a boycott of Dutch products on our Facebook page, we feel we need to make an official statement regarding the Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest organized by Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders later this year.

Because we are a cartoon organization located in the Netherlands, some people presume we support this initiative. We do not.

This cartoon contest is asking cartoonists to draw the Prophet Muhammad. Depictions of the Prophet are considered blasphemous by many Muslims. Geert Wilders claims that this competition is to show that freedom of speech should never bow down to region.

 

Screenshot from Facebook: some of the comments we have received.

 

We agree. With the last statement, that is. We don’t agree with this competition. To us, Wilders’ initiative has much in common with the Holocaust cartoon contest organized a few years back by Iran. In both contests, cartoonists are asked to mock a specific subject with the aim of insulting a specific group of people. In the case of Iran, the aim was to insult Jews; in the case of Wilders, the aim is to insult Muslims. In both these contests, cartoons are wielded as a political weapon, to attack a specific group. Cartoons should never be used in this way.

However, we do agree that free speech overrides religion. And we strongly condemn the threats we have received by people who feel insulted over what is, in essence, a few lines on paper. In this case, these lines haven’t even been drawn yet.

Islam, like other religions (or any institution that wields power) is a legitimate target of satire, if that satire is aimed at exposing wrongs and injustices. And satire should never be afraid to be blasphemous to achieve this aim. We have no problem with depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a cartoon, if that cartoon is a legitimate criticism of Islam. But Mr. Wilders is not aiming for a meaninful critique of religion, or to start a thoughtful debate about religion and satire. He’s simply out to insult Muslims. And that’s something we do not want to be a part of.

The Cartoon Movement

New Cartoonists from Jordan, Uzbekistan and Italy

We are expanding our global community of cartoonists with talented artists from Jordan, Uzbekistan and Italy!

 

Mahmoud Rifai - Jordan

Mahmoud Rifai is a cartoonist from Amman, Jordan. His work has been published in various Jordanian daily newspapers. He has also worked as animator and art director for various studios and production companies. He is the Secretary of the Jordanian Cartoonist Community. Check out his Facebook page to see more of his work.

 

Muzaffar Yulchiboev - Uzbekistan

Muzaffar Yulchiboev is a cartoonist from Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He graduated from the National Institute of Arts and Design in 2016 and current works as a theatrical painting artist in a theater, in addition to working as a cartoonist. He has won several awards with his cartoons.

 

Maurizio Boscarol - Italy

 Maurizio Boscarol is a cartoonist and graphic journalism (making longford comics) for online and print publications.

New Cartoonist: Mohsen Zarifian

Mohsen Zarifian is an award-winning freelance cartoonist from Iran. He has been a professional cartoonist since 1991, collaborating with many major newspapers and magazines in Iran.

New Cartoonist: Adrian Palmas

Adrian Palmas is an award-winning cartoonist from Argentina. His work has been published by media in Argentina and the United States.

New Cartoonist: Amin Montazeri

Amin Montazeri is a illustrator, designer, animator and cartoonist from Tehran, Iran. His work has been awarded several times and has been featured in numerous exhibitions in Iran and abroad.