Three years since Syrian editorial cartoonist Akram Raslan was arrested by the Assad regime for “offending the state’s prestige” with his work, it is now all but certain that he died in government custody in 2013. Based on testimony from…
Category: International
Sudanese Government Seizes Newspaper to Suppress Cartoon
In the midst of a press censorship spree over the weekend, Sudanese government authorities seized the entire Sunday print run of Al-Khartoum newspaper, apparently in retaliation for an editorial cartoon that appeared on the front page. Ironically, the cartoon criticized…
Zunar’s Sedition Trial Postponed for Third Time
Malaysian political cartoonist Zunar, currently awaiting trial on nine counts of sedition, will have to wait a little longer. Last week his trial was postponed for the third time and is now set to begin on November 6. Meanwhile, he’s…
Fallout 4 to be Released Uncensored and “100% Uncut” in Germany
Although previous versions of the game have seen heavy censorship, a recent announcement at E3 let fans in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland know that they would be able to play the latest installment in the Fallout video game franchise unedited…
Young Adult Novel Banned from Distribution in New Zealand
After a series of back-and-forth censor board reviews, the award-winning young adult novel Into the River by New Zealand writer Ted Dawe is now completely banned in the author’s native country, pending yet another review that will likely come next…
Fellow Cartoonists Honor Atena Farghadani at CRNI Courage Award Ceremony
When political cartoonists from around the country and the world gathered in Columbus, Ohio last week for the annual convention of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, many of them were thinking of a colleague who couldn’t attend. At a…
Cartoonist Bonil Keeps Up Fight Against Government Censorship
From exorbitant fines to charges of “socioeconomic discrimination” to threats from ISIS, cartoonist Xavier Bonilla, best known by his pen-name Bonil, and his work have been frequent targets of the Ecuadorian government. As we learn in a recent interview with…
Barefoot Gen Ranked #1 Most Affecting Manga in Japanese Poll
In a recent poll done by Japanese website Goo, Keiji Nakazawa’s semi-autobiographical manga anti-war Barefoot Gen ranked number one as today’s most “traumatizing” manga. The poll asked readers to rank the top 28 manga that left an indelible emotional impression…
Hairy Situation: Canadian Website Censors Satirical Essay by Margaret Atwood
Twitter called it #hairgate, but award-winning author Margaret Atwood said it was outright censorship when her column about Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s hairdo was pulled from the National Post site last month. In what quickly escalated to blitz of…
Neil Gaiman: “Freedom of speech is a hugely important thing.”
“I was really lucky in that my parents definitely didn’t seem to have any kind of rules about what I couldn’t read.” With that, Neil Gaiman — CBLDF Advisory Board co-president and longtime supporter of our fight for the right…