Category: International

Moroccan Cartoonists Fight for their Right to Free Speech

Morocco is a country abound with cartoonists who are using the art of satire to address a variety of social issues and injustices. But it is also a country with a deep recent history of governmental censorship and oppression. Amidst…

Chinese Censorship Undermines Animation and Comics Industry

Japanese manga promotes juvenile delinquency, violence, and sex — these were some of the reasons that the Chinese Ministry of Culture used to outright ban 38 Japanese manga and anime. But some are beginning to explore whether similar Chinese-produced materials…

Japan Censors Artist for Vagina Kayak

In a country that celebrates the male phallus, Japanese artist Rokudenashiko has been charged with the distribution and dissemination of obscene materials and faces up two years in prison and a $20,000 fine for using her own vagina as the…

Zunar Receives Grant Support from Human Rights Watch

As the Malaysian government continues to do everything in its power to prevent Zunar from selling his work openly, Human Rights Watch announced today that it will provide the cartoonist emergency aid in the form of a Hellman/Hammett grant, awarded…

Farghadani to Receive CRNI Courage in Cartooning Award

Iranian artist and activist Atena Farghadani, currently imprisoned for a cartoon she drew depicting members of the country’s Parliament as apes and bovines, has been named as the 2015 winner of Cartoonists Rights Network International’s Courage in Cartooning award. CRNI…

Emerging Arab Comic Artists Face Censorship

London’s Shubbak Festival is a biennial celebration of contemporary Arab culture that spotlights film, music, visual, and more with programming and events. One of the programs included in the 2015 edition of the festival, which took place in July, focused…

British Teens Barred from Diary of a Teenage Girl Film

Next week, a critically praised film adaptation of Phoebe Gloeckner’s graphic novel The Diary of a Teenage Girl will land in U.S. cinemas with an R rating for “strong sexual content including dialogue, graphic nudity, drug use, language and drinking-all…

Despite Ban, Manga and Anime Remain Hot Topics on Chinese Social Media

Despite last month’s Chinese ban on dozens of manga and anime series that were said to “encourage juvenile delinquency, glorify violence and include sexual content,” social media users in China are easily circumventing the restrictions by sharing content online. According…