Cartoonists Under Threat

 

In his July 3rd cartoon for the Jakarta Post, Stephff (Stefane Peray) depicted an ISIS operative hoisting an ISIS flag on which the flag’s design morphs into a skull and crossbones. On December 12th, five months later, police announced that Jakarta Post editor Meidyatama Suryodiningrat could be charged under Indonesia’s much-criticized blasphemy laws because of the publication of that cartoon. [full story]

The Malaysian government has expanded its efforts to silence Kuala Lumpur-based cartoonist Zunar.  On November 20, Zunar wrote “Today I was questioned for about 45 minutes by the police regarding my new cartoon book, Komplot Penjarakan Anwar (Plot to Jail Anwar) at the Dang Wangi Police Station in Kuala Lumpur.  I was investigated under the ‘Classified Crime Section’ involving three different laws. The laws are: (A) Printing Presses and Publications Act, (B) Sedition Act, (B) Penal Code.  Two separate police reports were made against me in two different police stations regarding the production of the book.   Throughout the investigation session, I refused to answer any of the 27 questions asked by the police.  In the latest development, the police have asked the online payment gateway that handles my book transactions to disclose the list of customers who have purchased my books through my official website, zunar.my.”  [ full story ]

One month after winning an appeal against government censorship of two of his cartoon collections, Malaysian political cartoonist Zunar finds his work being banned and confiscated anew.
Meanwhile, Turkish cartoonist Musa Kart was found not guilty of “insulting through publication and slander” Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a cartoon published in the daily Cumhuriyet on February 1, 2014.
These latest incidents involving Zunar and Musa Kart, both past recipients of CRNI’s Courage Award (in 2011 and 2005, respectively) illustrate the endless cycle of charges and intimidation faced even by prominent cartoonists who have successfully defended their rights … [full story: Zunar]  [full story: Musa Kart]

CRNI just received news that Venezuelan cartoonist Rayma Suprani has been fired from her job at El Universal because of a recent cartoon which featured former President Hugo Chavez’s signature flatlining on a monitor representing the national healthcare system.
Rayma has been in trouble with authorities before for cartoons satirizing the Venezuelan leadership, which has become known for its punitive reactions to any kind of criticism from the media. [full story]

The jihadist militant group ISIS has pronounced a death sentence for Kuwati-born comic book innovator Naif Al-Mutawa via Twitter, according to the website arabianbusiness.com
Dr. Al-Mutawa, whose groundbreaking comic “THE 99” has sought to give the Muslim community its own superheroes while at the same time fostering a greater, more positive understanding of Islam among non-Muslim readers, is no stranger to criticism. Though he created THE 99 — whose gaggle of protagonists are each inspired by one of the 99 attributes of Allah as delineated in the Quran — in consultation with Sharia scholars,    [full story]

When Kanika Mishra, a cartoonist and web-animator living in Mumbai, got word that a popular religious leader, Asaram Bapu, had been accused of raping the 16-year old daughter of two of his followers, she reacted in the most powerful way she could. Within hours of hearing there was a police manhunt for Asaram – who claims a religious footprint of more than 400 ashrams and millions of devotees worldwide – Kanika posted a cartoon to her Facebook page putting the soon-to-be-charged holy man squarely in the crosshairs of her cartoon everywoman, Karnika Kahen.
Bapu was already on Mishra’s radar for suggesting that the victim of the infamous 2012 gang rape on a Delhi bus was partly responsible for her rape.    [full story]