As the world becomes a more globalized place, artists have the ability to reach a wider and more diverse audience than ever before, but with that new, larger audience comes the ability to offend, as well as inspire, a greater…
Author: Mark Bousquet
Cartoonist Khalid Albaih Changing the Nature of Protest
A recent profile of political cartoonist Khalid Albaih in The New York Times highlights the changing nature of rebellion and protest in the 21st century. Placing Albaih at the center of several different dynamics — between depiction and inspiration and…
Australian Student Newspaper Forced to Pull Satirical Islam Cartoon
What are the limits on religious satire? Recently, Woroni, the student newspaper of the Australian National University, was forced by the school to remove and apologize for a cartoon that satirized Islam. If the Woroni case were a routine matter of…
Holding Strong Against the Rise of Censorship in Egypt and Tunisia
Despite legislation protecting free expression, an Egyptian satirist and Tunisian rapper find themselves caught in a wave of rising post-Arab Spring censorship. Political cartoons have been an ongoing target, and now Bassem Youssef and Weld El 15 have both been…
The Increase of Artistic Self-Censorship in Russia
When an artist is censored by a government agency or political group, the immediate focus is on the individual case: Who is being censored, who is doing the censoring, and what are the reasons for the censorship? An unseen consequence…
Ninth Circuit Limits Search of Electronic Devices at U.S. Borders
Due to concerns over national security, government agents at the United States border have traditionally had greater leeway in regards to an individual’s Fourth Amendment rights, but recently there have been growing concerns that such leeway has been stretched to…
MPAA’s Chris Dodd Recalls Persecution of Comics When Defending Movies
Twenty-three months ago, former United States Senator Chris Dodd was not what anyone, himself included, would call a movie buff. After taking a position as CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), however, Dodd has undergone something akin…
College Paper Sparks Debate Over Social and Racial Commentary in Cartoons
On January 24th, the editorial board of the University of Wisconsin, Madison’s student newspaper, The Badger Herald, decided not to run artist Vincent Cheng’s “Ya Boi, Inc.” comic strip for that day. Cheng’s strip (shown above) depicts a middle-aged man…
Political Cartoonists in Egypt Face Growing Attacks
There is perhaps no singular instance that better describes the increasing pressure felt by political cartoonists in Egypt than the case of cartoonist Doaa El-Adl and Naguib Sawiris, the owner of Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper, who are being sued by the…
The Government’s Increasing Interest in Your Electronic Devices
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is currently challenging the United States government in two separate cases that seek to limit the powers of border patrol agents in regards to the search of electronic devices without any suspicion of illegal…