When Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks drew political cartoons that depicted the prophet Muhammad, he probably didn’t recognize just how much danger he was putting himself into. In the six years since, he’s gone to extreme lengths to preserve his safety. The Sydney Morning Herald ran an interesting article this week discussing the fallout of Vilks’s cartoons, both for him and for other cartoonists.
Jytte Klausen, a professor of comparative politics at Brandeis University and the author of a new book entitled The Cartoons that Shook the World, noted that cartoonists now self-censor themselves, a distressing development and a blow to free speech around the world. You can read the full article here.
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