Around the world, people have shown solidarity for the victims and survivors of the attacks on Charlie Hebdo, but the Finnish Cartoon Society has had a much harder time finding a venue to host their own tribute exhibit “Minä olen…
In Denmark, recent debates over whether the controversial political cartoons depicting Muhammad printed in the newspaper Jyllands-Posten in 2005 should be included in Danish textbooks for educational purposes have raised concerns not only over the appropriateness of including such material…
Earlier last month, political cartoonist, Bonil was charged with socioeconomic discrimination in his home country of Ecuador for his controversial cartoon mocking Afro-Ecuadorian legislative assemblyman, Agustin “Tin” Delgado. But Bonil hasn’t just been targeted by his home country — ISIS…
Long before Charlie Hebdo was skewering religious beliefs, politicians, and social issues from its home in France, the Muslim population of the Russian and Persian empires embraced satire in their own magazine, Molla Nasreddin, a weekly that was distributed 1906…
In light of the devastating news last week that Islamic State extremists apparently burned part or all of the public library collection in the Iraqi city of Mosul, CBLDF general counsel Robert Corn-Revere contributed a comprehensive overview of book burnings…
Just in time for Children’s Book Week, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is proud to release a new printing of Raising a Reader! How Comics & Graphic Novels Can Help Your Kids Love To Read!, CBLDF’s signature resource for parents…
In 2006, Iranian cartoonist Mana Neyestani was arrested and imprisoned for three months for drawing a children’s cartoon. In his memoir An Iranian Metamorphosis, he tells the surreal tale of his detention and eventual exile from his native country —…
This week our neighbors to the north are celebrating Freedom to Read Week! Much like Banned Books Week in the U.S., this is “an annual event that encourages Canadians to think about and reaffirm their commitment to intellectual freedom, which…
The Tanzanian government has banned the Nairobi newspaper, The EastAfrican, from newsstands. Although the publicized reason for the ban is that the newspaper was being distributed within Tanzania without proper legal registration as required by a 1976 law, several individuals…
Political cartoonist Xavier Bonilla, known as Bonil, has been charged with “socioeconomic discrimination” in his home country of Ecuador for a cartoon targeting Agustín “Tin” Delgado, a former professional soccer player who now sits on Ecuador’s legislative assembly. Bonilla is…