CARTOONISTS RIGHTS NETWORK INTERNATIONAL

Award-winning cartoonist censored in USA

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UPDATE 06/14 – Rogers confirms his dismissal via Twitter.

Rob Rogers, political cartoonist at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, has been dropped from the paper’s opinion pages.

Roger’s June 1st cartoon is an example of work that did not appear in the paper that employs him. Our friends at the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) have made a statement concerning his apparent disappearance.

Local news radio 90.5 WESA has more, reporting that last week five of Rogers’ cartoons were not punished and that this is due to intervention by editorial director Keith Burris, seemingly a supporter of President Donald Trump.

Rogers’ work continues to appear unabated via his website and social media. He is a recipient twice over of the Overseas Press Club’s Thomas Nast Award, the National Headliner Award, numerous Golden Quills, the National Press Foundation’s Berryman Award and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He’s also committed to freedom of expression and preservation of the cartoon art form, serving as president of the AAEC in the past and currently at the Toonseum as well as making a generous donation to CRNI, enabling us to assist a refugee cartoonist in the Middle East.

It is disturbing to see a high-profile advocate for and proponent of cartooning being censored in such a blatant manner. We trust the readers of the Post-Gazette will make their feelings known in due course.

 To Report a Cartoonist in Danger  Email Cartoonists Rights Network International

Yet Another Cartoonist Jailed In Turkey

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UPDATE 06/06: latest reports indicate Kurtcebe has been released on probation. More to follow.

Respected political cartoonist & graphic novelist Nuri Kurtcebe has been given a 14 month prison sentence.

In what is becoming a depressingly familiar pattern, Turkish media reported yesterday that another high-profile press and media worker has fallen foul of Turkey’s penal system. Nuri Kurtcebe has been found guilty of “insulting”  President Erdoğan in a cartoon from 2015.

Long-time readers of CRNI’s blog will recall that Erdoğan has engaged in industrial-scale persecution of academics, broadcasters, comedians, commentators and satirists for some time. Today Turkey ranks as the world’s number one jailer of journalists.

Another victim of Erdoğan’s ire is cartoonist Musa Kart, himself recently sentenced to prison. According to the Cumhuriyet newspaper Kart has said:

“Apparently, this ruling has not abandoned the idea of ​​neutralizing cartoonists with prison sentences. I hope and pray that on June 25th this political climate devoid of humor will change. I am continuing to resume caricature and myths against the threats of repression and punishment.”

Kart refers to the presidential election later this month.

Kurtcebe’s cartoon suggests that Turkey’s nominally secular government may not be as the president contends.

Kurtcebe is one of the co-founders of the original Gırgır magazine. Its successor was shut amid a “blasphemy” controversy last year which led to a third cartoonist, Seyfi Şahin being sent to prison two weeks ago.

We echo Musa Kart’s sentiments and hope that Turkey’s cartoonists can look forward to the return of normal working conditions in the near future.

 To Report a Cartoonist in Danger  Email Cartoonists Rights Network International

Ramón Nsé Esono Ebalé is free

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Nine months on, Ramón has left Equatorial Guinea behind.

The cartoonist is safe and well with friends in Madrid, Spain.

Earlier this year we reported that Ramón Nsé Esono Ebalé aka Jamón y Queso, recipient of 2017’s Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award, had been cleared of all criminal charges levelled against him in Equatorial Guinea.

Despite his proven innocence Ramón was not given his passport upon release from police custody. Hence he was still in effect a prisoner. He is an E.Guinean citizen but his home and family are in El Salvador.

Today we are happy to report that Ramón’s documents were returned and he is free at last.

A statement released today and co-singed by CRNI reads as follows.

(Nairobi, May 29, 2018)—The Equatorial Guinean artist Ramón Esono Ebalé left the country on May 28, 2018, after being imprisoned for six months on apparently false charges and then waiting three months for travel documents, 13 rights organizations said today.

“Ramón Esono Ebalé’s nine-month saga shows how many tools the Equatorial Guinean government has at its disposal to silence critics,” said Sarah Saadoun, of Human Rights Watch. “But it also is a powerful example of how solidarity and activism can confront abuses.”

Esono Ebalé, a prominent artist and cartoonist often critical of the government, who traveled to Equatorial Guinea to request a passport, was arrested on September 16, 2017 in Malabo, the capital, and charged almost three months later with counterfeiting around US$1,800 worth of the local currency. The line of questioning during the interrogation and a lack of evidence raised serious concerns that the allegations were politically motivated. These concerns were bolstered during the trial, when the government’s sole witness admitted on the stand that he was just following his bosses’ orders.

The judge dismissed the case on February 27, and Esono Ebalé was freed, but he remained effectively trapped in the country because he lacked the proper travel documents. He was finally issued a passport on May 23 and left the country five days later.

Throughout this ordeal, dozens of cartoonists’ rights and human rights organizations and advocates worked to publicize the case internationally, including with the United Nations and global policymakers. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights wrote a letter of appeal to the Equatorial Guinean government, and US Senator Richard Durbin remained actively engaged with the case.

“We, the #FreeNseRamon coalition, hundreds of artists, journalists, activists, rights defenders and supporters from around the world, celebrate that Ramón will finally be able to see his loved ones after an ordeal that lasted almost nine months,” said Tutu Alicante, executive director of EG Justice, a group that monitors the government’s human rights record. “Many critical voices remain silenced and imprisoned in Equatorial Guinea, but today, we rejoice that one of those talented activists is free and can go back to drawing truth to power.”

The human rights groups and advocates are APIM, Arterial Network, Committee to Protect Journalists, CRNI, Caoilfhionn Gallagher QC, Jonathan Price, Paul Mason, International Media Defence Panel, Doughty Street Chambers, EG Justice, FIDH, within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, FREEMUSE, Human Rights Watch, Index on Censorship, PEN International, and Reporters without Borders.

We commend Tutu Alicante and EG Justice as well as all the other organisations who have worked tirelessly on Ramón’s behalf since his detention last September.

 To Report a Cartoonist in Danger  Email Cartoonists Rights Network International

“Moses” cartoonist jailed in Turkey

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Reports emerge from Turkey that a cartoonist has been given a prison sentence for “insulting sacred values”.

Seyfi Şahin has been jailed for one year and fifteen days after portraying the Biblical figure of Moses in a cartoon, says the Stockholm Center for Freedom, Turkey Purge and Turkish Minute blogs.

The cartoon in question led to the sudden and complete closure of the Gırgır humour magazine in 2017. Our original news item published on the 17th of February last year is below.

Şahin is far from the only media worker to suffer persecution Turkey, the biggest jailer of journalists on Earth, and not even the sole cartoonist. Our past Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award winners Musa Kart and Dogan Güzel have both endured further woes in recent years and all Turkish cartoonists in contact with CRNI attest to a more difficult environment as outlets for their work are variously censored and curtailed.

The Dokuz8 news feed reports that Turkish magazine Gırgır has been closed due to the publication of a cartoon featuring the figure of Moses.

However CRNI understand that the modern incarnation of Gırgır is different from the original magazine which at one time was the most popular in the country.

The charge of religious hatred is reflected in reports on ABC News and elsewhere.  The contention that “ulterior sinister motives” were at play echoes the accusations levelled at cartoonists, journalists, media workers, public servants and academics who have been variously dismissed and jailed across Turkey under the regime of Recep Erdoğan. The President was a regular subject of fun for the magazine.

A statement from their now-defunct Twitter account apparently expressed sincere regret over any offence caused, citing “lack of sleep and exhaustion” for its appearance in print.

The front cover of the latest and evidently last issue of the magazine.

 To Report a Cartoonist in Danger  Email Cartoonists Rights Network International

A statement on Musa Kart and the oppression of journalists in Turkey

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The oft-repeated statement “an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us” applies to political cartoonists worldwide after Turkish cartoonist Musa Kart was sentenced to prison. Why should Americans care about the fate of a satirist who mocked his president in a country half way around the world? Because it can happen here.

It wasn’t that long ago Turkey was a beacon of democracy with a relatively freewheeling press. In a part of the world known for strongmen and monarchies, Turkish institutions were working hard to liberalize and guarantee individual freedoms, such as freedom of speech and freedom of the press. But with the ascension of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, all that changed.

Erdogan used an attempt to oust him for his autocratic tendencies as an excuse to crack down on his opponents. Thousands were fired from universities, tens of thousands from government positions, and 50,000 were arrested, including his critics in the media.

One of those arrested on trumped-up charges was Musa Kart, whose cartoons depicting Erdogan as a corrupt strongman surely irritated the Turkish president, whose base of support comes from the country’s religious conservatives—a group not known for being friendly to humor or a free press.

In a travesty of a trial, Kart — along with 13 fellow journalists and staff members of his newspaper — was found guilty of “aiding terrorist organizations” and sentenced to almost four years in prison. Last week the Geneva-based foundation Cartooning for Peace gave Kart its International Editorial Cartoons Prize. “The jury has chosen Musa Kart, iconic cartoonist of the Istanbul newspaper Cumhuriyet, for his talent and courage in defense of freedom of expression,” a statement from the group said.

While we’re sure Mr. Kart was honored, he could not accept the award in person because the Turkish government has banned him from traveling abroad.

In normal times it would be unthinkable that American journalists and satirists would fear for their freedom. These are not normal times. The current occupant of the White House has repeatedly attacked the press, even reviving the Stalinist phrase “enemy of the people” to describe us, all while encouraging violence against his opponents. It’s no longer unthinkable that one who irritates the leading political figure in America won’t be made to pay a price.

The dark path Turkey has taken is one that we in the United States must guard against.

—The AAEC Board

http://news.editorialcartoonists.com/aaec/2018/05/a-statement-on-musa-kart-and-the-oppression-of-journalism-in-turkey.html

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