The shortlist for Index on Censorship’s 2016 Freedom of Expression Awards has been announced. An international organization dedicated to free speech around the world, the award celebrates the individuals who have challenged censorship and stood up for freedom of expression.…
Riad Sattouf, Franco-Syrian creator of the universally lauded graphic memoir The Arab of the Future, is an uneasy symbol of the intercultural tensions currently roiling Europe and the Middle East. A longtime contributor to Charlie Hebdo and until 2014 the…
Known for her cartoons on social and political issues in India—especially those that relate to Indian women—cartoonist Kanika Mishra has gained significant recognition for her use of social media as a vehicle for freedom of expression. Earlier this year, Mishra…
In the aftermath of Kenyan cartoonist Godfrey Mwampembwa (better known as Gado) being fired from the Kenyan newspaper The Daily Nation earlier this month, fellow cartoonists, free speech advocates, and cartoonist rights activists are supporting the artist and condemning Kenyan press for undermining freedom…
Egyptian novelist Ahmed Naji remains in prison pending an appeal of his conviction for “violating public modesty” with an excerpt from his book Use of Life. A few brave government officials, including Minister of Culture Helmy al-Namnam, have spoken out…
Two young men from the Khargone district in Madhya Pradesh, India, have been arrested for distributing obscene material over the internet. They face a possible three to five year jail sentence. 22-year-old Shaquir Yunus Banthia and 21-year-old college student Wasim Sheikh were…
Just a few months after a UN envoy recommended that Japan ban certain types of manga and anime to somehow protect real children from abuse, a separate UN committee has now entered the fray by urging the government to ban…
Since the blocking of two of his cartoons on Facebook, Indian graphic novelist Orijit Sen had made it a personal mission to find ways to provoke audiences and inspire conversations. He spoke with Hindustan Times, discussing how Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer…
After decades of doing work for Kenya’s largest newspaper, the Daily Nation, the celebrated and most syndicated cartoonist in East and Central Africa Godfrey Mwampembwa (better known as Gado) has been fired due to suspected political pressure from the Kenyan…
The year was 1954. The location: Glasgow, Scotland’s Southern Necropolis, a massive graveyard harboring over 250,000 sets of mortal remains. Over a span of three nights that September hundreds of children under the age of 14 reportedly assembled there with…