Anime News Network reports that publication of the adult manga magazine Comic Mega Store has been indefinitely suspended due to a police investigation for obscenity. The magazine was clearly marked 18+, but apparently still ran afoul of Article 175 of…
Category: International
New Zealand Man Jailed for Watching Anime
Ronald Clark, a man from Auckland, New Zealand, has been sentenced to three months jail and may be further sentenced to 10 years of supervision and penalties. His crime: watching Japanese anime featuring pixies, elves, trolls, and other fantasy characters…
Holding Strong Against the Rise of Censorship in Egypt and Tunisia
Despite legislation protecting free expression, an Egyptian satirist and Tunisian rapper find themselves caught in a wave of rising post-Arab Spring censorship. Political cartoons have been an ongoing target, and now Bassem Youssef and Weld El 15 have both been…
The Increase of Artistic Self-Censorship in Russia
When an artist is censored by a government agency or political group, the immediate focus is on the individual case: Who is being censored, who is doing the censoring, and what are the reasons for the censorship? An unseen consequence…
Political Cartoons: Fuel For Revolution or a Reflection of the Fire?
What do editorial cartoons do? Are they really the mind-changing propaganda that censors fear? Or do they simply mirror the ideas, events, and trends already taking place? Cartoon Movement recently published a translated interview with Ilan Danjoux, author of Political…
Defending Manga: The Ryan Matheson Story
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is proud to release Defending Manga: The Ryan Matheson Story, a short documentary video recounting the young American citzen’s fight for justice after being wrongfully accused of criminal activity because of fantasy and humor…
Ninth Circuit Limits Search of Electronic Devices at U.S. Borders
Due to concerns over national security, government agents at the United States border have traditionally had greater leeway in regards to an individual’s Fourth Amendment rights, but recently there have been growing concerns that such leeway has been stretched to…
Paris Museum Runs Afoul of Facebook Content Policies
French museum Jeu de Paume found itself the latest example of artistic institutions shut down by Facebook content policies for the photographic presence of that most dastardly body part, the female nipple. According to Gizmodo, the artwork, by early 20th…
The Beginning of the End for Australian Comics Censorship
Regular CBLDF readers probably recall Joe Sergi’s post from last year about the birth of official comics censorship in Australia, where the gruesome crimes of Lone Avenger creator Len Lawson cast a pall over the entire industry for decades. Now…
Cuban Cartoonists: “Of course there is censorship.”
As we were traversing the interwebs today, we ran across an enlightening interview on Cartoon Movement, a website dedicated to political cartoons and comics journalism around the world. The interview is with three Cuban cartoonists, who shared their perspectives on…