The 2016 Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award from Cartoonists Rights Network International will go to an Iranian refugee cartoonist who goes by the name Eaten Fish, the advocacy group announced on Friday. Eaten Fish is currently held in a refugee…
Category: International
Nigerian Women Fight Back Against Oppression with Romance Novels
A new, unconventional literary movement is taking hold in Nigeria in the form of romance novels. Called “love literature,” dozens of women are printing and even hand-writing thousands of novellas with the intent of speaking out against and challenging certain social…
Chief Censor Talks About the Evolution of Censorship in New Zealand
From the initially successful and then rescinded ban of the award-winning coming of age novel Into the River in 2015, an 18+ rating on Alan Moore’s Lost Girls in 2014, or the seizure of the classic 1970s book Bloody Mama in 2011, New…
New Zealand Newspaper Shocked to Find Adult Comic in Adult Section of Library
A New Zealand newspaper seems to be looking for controversy where there is none, suggesting in a recent article that Brandon Graham’s erotic comic Perverts of the Unknown may be inappropriate for local library collections even though it’s correctly shelved…
Turkish Cartoonist Arrested Along With Newspaper Colleagues
Turkish-born cartoonist Dogan Güzel has been arrested in Istanbul along with more than 20 colleagues from the Kurdish newspaper Özgür Gündem, which has also been shut down by government order. Güzel, the recipient of Cartoonists Rights Network International’s very first…
Jordanian Writer Charged With Blasphemy for Sharing Cartoon
A Jordanian writer turned himself in over the weekend to face charges of insulting Islam with a cartoon that he shared on Facebook intending to mock the worldview of ISIS fighters. Nahed Hattar, a controversial left-wing Christian columnist and staunch…
Kashmiri Protest Art Blinds Icons As Resistance
Gandhi, Van Gogh, and Mona Lisa are peering out from bloodied bandaged eyes in new art by cartoonist Mir Suhail, who aims to raise awareness of the consequences of “non-lethal” pellet guns that are causing a wave of deaths, blindings, and mutilations among Kashmiri protestors.…
British Citizen Detained at Airport for Reading Book
On July 25, authorities in the U.K. detained a Muslim citizen at an airport after a cabin crew member reported her for “suspicious activity.” That activity? Reading a book celebrating the freedom of expression in Syria. Faizah Shaheen was returning…
Exiled Cartoonist: “I’m From the Internet”
Despite 27 years in exile, Sudanese cartoonist Khalid Albaih has found a home: the internet. Like many cartoonists displaced by oppressive regimes, Albaih recognizes the power of the web as a tool for circumventing censorship, expressing dissent, and fomenting change. Albaih…
Turkish Cartoonists Refuse to Back Down in Post-Coup Crackdown
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has spent years trying to crack down on free expression in the country. A failed July coup attempt heralded even more oppression, but much like previous attempts to stifle dissent, Turkey’s satirists are still finding ways to…