Assem Trivedi is facing new charges stemming from cartoons he drew more than five years ago. Winner of the CRNI Courage in Cartooning Award in 2012 for his Cartoons Against Corruption, Trivedi lives and works in Uttar Pradesh, India

This is from the DNA India website:

The Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) police recently filed a charge sheet against cartoonist Aseem Trivedi in a five-year-old case.

Trivedi allegedly insulted national symbols through his cartoons in 2012.

Trivedi was arrested in 2012 by the BKC police on charges of sedition, for insulting the national symbols through anti-corruption cartoons on his website during the Anna Hazare protest. One such cartoon replaced the three lions on the National Emblem, Ashoka Stambh, with wolves.

The arrest was carried out on the basis of a complaint filed by Amit Katarnayea, a legal advisor for a Mumbai-based NGO.

Katarnayea had accused Trivedi of putting up banners mocking the Constitution at Anna Hazare’s rally in BKC and posting obscene content on his website.

Trivedi was charged with sedition under Section 124 (A) of the Indian Penal Code. The cartoonist was also charged under the IT Act and the 1971 National Emblem Act. Later the BKC police had dropped the sedition charge and the IT Act.

On November 12, the police had sent a notice to Trivedi asking him to be present in the Bandra Metropolitan Magistrate court.

“Initially, the police asked me to be present in the court and a notice was also sent to me, but later I received a call saying ‘your presence is not required on the day of the charge sheet being filed in court’, as I have got bail 5 years ago in the same case. Only then did I come to know that they have filed a charge sheet,” Trivedi told DNA.

Kalpana Gadekar, Senior PI of BKC police station confirmed that the charge sheet was filed earlier this month.

On the  1^st of December, the Twitter account of the esteemed cartoonist, Musa Kart, a Turkish citizen, was hacked.  Mr Kart is currently on trial in Turkey, one of many brought to trial following the imposition of emergency legislation in the country.  He recently spent nine months in prison.  He was released in July following an appeal by his lawyers, and is next due to appear in court, alongside his colleagues, on 25^th December. The charges against him are strongly refuted, by many international organizations.

Mr Kart was locked out of his account for days.  It is now reinstated but it’s impossible to determine the source of the hack.  The hack has been reported to Twitter.  Because of the sensitivity of Mr Kart’s situation and the ongoing political crack down in Turkey CRNI urges Twitter to do what it can to trace the source of the attack and take measures to safeguard names and information of the followers of Mr Kart’s Twitter feed.

SIGN THE PETITION HERE: https://www.change.org/p/presidente-teodoro-obiang-nguema-mbasogo-freenseramon-artivista-detenido-en-malabo

A COUPLE CLICKS AND A COUPLE SHARES AND YOU’VE HELPED AN IMPRISONED CARTOONIST.

Equatoguinean cartoonist and activist Ramón Esono Ebalé was arrested on Saturday, September 16 in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. After leaving a restaurant and getting into a car, three people who identified themselves as members of state security opened the doors and handcuffed him. Since then, Ramón has been held at a police station waiting to be notified of the reason for his arrest. During an interrogation they asked Ramon about Obi’s Nightmare, a graphic novel illustrated by Ramón that is very critical of Teodoro Obiang, Equatorial Guinea’s president for the last nearly 40 years. He was warned that his drawings could be considered defamation of the president.

To arbitrarily detain an activist for his art critiquing the lack of basic freedoms and corruption is typical of dictatorships that operate outside the law and with impunity. Ramón has not violated any Equatoguinean law. The Government of Equatorial Guinea must respect his right to express himself freely and release him immediately. The signatories of this letter ask Obiang to grant Ramon’s immediate release.

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https://www.change.org/p/presidente-teodoro-obiang-nguema-mbasogo-freenseramon-artivista-detenido-en-malabo

A COUPLE CLICKS AND A COUPLE SHARES AND YOU’VE HELPED AN IMPRISONED CARTOONIST.

November 15, 2017
Open Letter to the President of Equatorial Guinea: Release Artist and Writer Ramón Esono Ebalé
Mr. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo
President of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea
Palacio Presidencial
Avenida de la Libertad
Malabo, Guinea Ecuatorial

Your Excellency,
We write to express our deep concern in response to the unjust arrest and subsequent detention without charge of Ramón Esono Ebalé in Malabo on 16th September 2017, and to urge you to release him immediately.
Mr. Ebalé and two of his friends were stopped by police, handcuffed, and had their mobile phones seized while getting into Mr. Ebalé’s sister’s car after leaving a restaurant in Malabo. Police then interrogated Mr. Ebalé about his drawings of, and blog posts about members of the Equatoguinean leadership, and told him – in front of his two friends – that he needed to make a statement explaining those drawings and blog posts. It was confirmed by police that only Mr. Ebalé was the target of the arrest, and not his two friends.
Mr Ebalé has learned that he faces potential charges of counterfeiting and money laundering; offences that were apparently never mentioned to him or his friends when they were arrested. Mr. Ebalé’s prolonged detention without charge gives rise to serious concerns that these allegations are no more than a pretext to justify the ongoing arbitrary deprivation of liberty he is being subjected to.
Mr. Ebalé’s extended detention at Black Beach prison without charge appears to be a clear violation of Equatorial Guinean law, which requires charges to be filed within 72 hours of an arrest. A judge has not mandated preventative detention in his case, which under exceptional circumstances would allow the police to hold him without charge for longer, nor does there appear to be a basis for such an order.
Mr. Ebalé, a renowned cartoonist who has been living abroad since 2011, has now spent 60 days in prison. His arrest in Equatorial Guinea—where he returned to renew his passport—has received global attention with calls for his release from fellow journalists, artists, activists, and human rights and press freedom organizations.
As Equatorial Guinea prepares to join the UN Security Council in January 2018, the world is watching the case of Mr. Ebalé closely. We hope that as your country takes this prominent position on the world stage, your government respects all human rights, including the right to freedom of expression, as enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In this vein, we call on your Excellency, and the judicial authorities in Equatorial Guinea to respect the rights of all artists, human rights defenders, activists, and, more generally, all individuals in Equatorial Guinea who wish to exercise their right to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association without fear of being harassed or prosecuted.
To this end, we urge you to order Mr. Ebalé’s immediate and unconditional release from prison.

Thank you for your consideration.
Yours Sincerely,

Amnesty International
API Madrid
Arterial Network
Association of American Editorial Cartoonists
Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, Member of the House of Lords, President of JUSTICE
Cartoonist Rights Network International
Committee to Protect Journalists
EG Justice
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
Freemuse
Human Rights Watch
Index on Censorship
PEN International
Reporters Without Borders
The Doughty Street International Media Defense Panel
Transparency International
UNCAC Coalition
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the
Protection of Human Rights Defenders

#HumorAmenazado
November 9, 2017
Cartoonists and the undersigned, make it clear that at this time, Humor is threatened in Spain.
As Juan Diego Botto said in his article “Delito de Ficción” (Fiction Crime), published in the digital newspaper “elDiario.es”:
“Fiction may only be judged from an esthetical, cultural, moral, ideological or even political point of view, but never penal.”

Recently, we have witnessed the unexpected firing of several cartoonists like Ferran Martín or Eneko de las Heras, adding to others also fired such as Farruqo, Romeu. Ventura, Farruqo, JR Mora, Altuna, Alfons López, Orué, Atxe o P8ladas, as well as others. The cartoonist Cels Piñol suffered censorship at one of his conferences in Bulgaria. Adding this to allegations against the magazines “El Jueves” and “Mongolia”. Other colleagues also admit receiving insults of personal nature for their work.

In February 2016, two puppeteers were jailed, accused of hate crimes and terrorism glorification. The Spanish justice finally dismissed this case. The same year, two presenters of the TV show “El Intermedio” (Gran Wyoming and Dani Mateo), were imputed for crimes offensive to religious feelings. They were acquitted.
In a healthy democracy, it is a worrisome symptom that cartoons, tweets, gags or satiric articles so easily outrage those in power. It is particularly striking that a joke can be taken so seriously.

Humor censorship happens silently and consistently, and not only in Spain. We remember other cartoonist colleagues who are suffering retaliation from their governments: Ramón Econo (Guinea), Emad Hajjaj (Jordan), Osmani Simanca (Brasil), Musa Kart (Turkey) or G. Bala (India).

Taking humor to court is not a joke. This was known very well by the great cartoonist and Humorist Gila, who was jailed for being a republican and fined for his work under the censorship of the dictator Franco.

With this manifesto, we have decided to call to attention democrats and mobilize social networks under the hashtag #HumorAmenazado (threatened humor) in order to request the repeal of the “Ley Mordaza” (gag law) and call out in favor of freedom of expression in all its artistic forms.

We demand that the media and its owners: respect and recognize our independence and professional labor as graphic cartoonists, whose only pretension is to make us laugh and stimulate critical thinking in our readers. Manifiesto #HumorAmenazado November 9, 2017

Manifiesto #HumorAmenazado signed by:
 Acapu (Ximo Segarra) – @Ximo_Segarra
 Albert Monteys – @Albert Monteys
 Álvaro Terán – @TrickyTrapper
 Àlex Gallego – @gariebo
 Àlex Santaló – @alexsantalo
 Amaníaco Ediciones – @amaniaco
 Andrés Palomino – @andresPSN
 Ant (Anthony Garner)
 Artsenal – @ARTSENALJH
 Atxe – @AtxeSinH
 Ben – @BenBrutalplanet
 Bob Estropajo – @BobEstropajo
 Calpurnio – @Calpur100
 Carla Berrocal – @pintamonas
 Carlos Azagra – @cazagra
 Carlos Escuín
 Cels Piñol – @celspinol
 Colorín (Manuel Colorado Acal) – @m_acal
 Conde Villamediana – @deVillamediana
 Cibergwenza – @Cibergwenza
 Dani Pérez – @daniperezweb
 Dani Gove – @Dani_Gove
 Darío Adanti – @darioadanti
 Davite (Deuxpression) – @deuxpression
 Edgar Cantero – @punkahoy
 Elarruga (Julio Arruga Hernández)
 El Chico Triste – @elchicotriste0
 Els quatre gats – @Els_quatre_gats
 El Koko – @Elkokoparrilla
 @ElGranPerich
 El Lápiz Loco – @ellapizloco1
 El Listo. Xavier Àgueda (Listo Entertainment) – @listocomics
 El Mundo de Gila – @ElMundoDeGila
 El Petardo – @petardohuelva
 El último mono – @_elultimomono
 Eneko las Heras – @EnekoHumor
 Eva Hache – @eva_hache
 Esppeonza @esppeonza
 Exprai – @Exprai
 Farruqo – @PepeFarruqo
 Fer (José Antonio Fernández Fernández)
 Ferran Martín – @ferranmartin
 Florencio Arias – @Florencio_arias
 Fritz – @FritzEsegato
 Gerardo Tecé – @gerardotc
 Guille Martínez-Vela – @guillemarvel
 HUMORISTAN – @HumoristanOrg
 gepzio en Vi etas @Igepzio
 Igor Fernández – @igor_f_f
 Infonecedad -@infonecedad
 Iñaki y Frenchy – @inakiyfrenchy76
 Iván Pérez – @ivanper
 Iván Sarnago – @IVANSARNAGO
 Javi guerrero – @javiguerrero67
 Javirroyo – @javirroyo
 JL Martín- @JLJLMartin
 Joan Ferrús Vicente
 Jordi Riera Pujal
 Jota Jota
 JMV (Jesús Martínez del Vas) – @YedaiJamao
 Jordi Canyissà – @canyissa
 José Antonio Bernal – @J_A_Bernal
 Juanjo Cuerda – @JJCuerda
 Julio A. Serrano
 JR Mora – @JRMora
 Kap – @kapdigital
 Kevin Corner – @kevin_corner1
 Kiko da Silva – @dasilvakiko
 La Boca del Logo (Alberto Fernández )- @labocadellogo
 LaRataGris – @LaRataGris
 Lope Humor – Lope – @lopehumor
 l’Avi ninotaire (Lluís Recasens) – @AviNinotaire
 Leandro Barea – @LeandroBarea
 Luis Davila – @OBichero
 Lumpen – @el_lumpen
 Magí Garcia Viral – @mogdi
 Maikel
 Mayte Quílez – @MayteQuilez
 Malagón – @malagonhumor
 Mamen Moreu – @Mamenmoreu_
 Manel Cruz – @LaHormigaSeca
 Manuel S. de Frutos – @MSdeFrutos
 Maribel Carod – @maribelcarod
 Mart Yuls – @martyuls
 Mel – @ElChisteDeMel
 Míguel (Politiquea) – @MIGUE_dibujero
 Nadim – @nadimcomics
 Oriol Jardí – @orioljardi
 Oroz – @latiradeOroz
 P8ladas – @p8ladas
 Pablo Velarde – @JudasCartoonist
 Padylla – @Padylla
 Pau-B. – @gargotejant
 Pandza – @qPandza
 Pedripol – @pedripol
 Picatostes (Jesús Rubio) – @picatostes
 Polo – @PeaLeopoldo
 Quel – @iQuel
 Raquel G.U. – @RaquelberryFinn
 Raúl Deamo – @RaulDeamo
 Raúl Salazar – @respetocanas
 Revista EL JUEVES – @eljueves
 Revista MONGOLIA – @revistamongolia
 Ricardo Hermida – @SrPlastiko
 Ricardo Olivera
 Ricardo Peregrina – @Filiburcio
 Ricard Soler – @llapisdecolor
 Roger Crunch – @rogercrunch
 Rubén Fernández – @thefdez
 Rubert – @PandemoldeComic
 Rudy Chernicof – @RudyChernicof1
 Sejo – @Sejo_Delgado
 SHAUN – Sumo de Naranja – @SumoDeNaranja
 Sinergia Sin Control – @fred_SSC
 Sintes – @SintesHumor
 Skakeo Fanzine – @skakeofanzine
 Toni Benages Gallard – @tonibenages
 Tres (Carles Villafranca)- @tuitTres
 United Unknown – @unitedunknown
 Xavi Morató – @xavimorato
 Ximi – @ximicomics
 Ykram – @ilustraguilar

Further information:
elmundodegila@gmail.com – http://www.miguelgila.com/blog/actualidad/humor-amenazado

Cartoons to raise awareness for imprisoned Equatorial Guinea cartoonist Ramón Esono Ebalé are being posted with the hashtag #FreeNseRamon.

See the rapidly growing gallery of images here: https://freenseramon.com/ilustraciones/

Contribute your own cartoon or illustration and share it online– #FreeNseRamon