Turkish comedian, actor, and cartoonist Cem Yilmaz went to trial on Monday for a recent tweet “insulting” Governor Selim Cebiroglu. Facing up to two years in jail for expressing his upset over the governor’s verbal abuse of math teacher Halil…
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.…
Earlier this year, three editors/artists for the independent Lebanese magazine Samandal were found guilty of belittling Christianity, “inciting sectarian strife,” and propagating “defamation and slander” leading to a total of $60,000 in fines. In a recent interview with The Comics…
Index on Censorship, an international organization dedicated to protecting free speech around the world, has opened the floor to nominate artists, journalists, and other activists for the 2016 Freedom of Expression Awards. From the arts and journalism to campaigning and…
In the United States, we’re celebrating Banned Books Week and our First Amendment right to freedom of speech, but artists around the world continue to be censored and banned and sometimes even imprisoned or killed. From political cartoonists to comic…
Turkey has one of the richest histories of satire and cartooning, but it is also one of the most oppressed and governmentally regulated countries in recent history when it comes to freedom of speech and expression. But cartoonists continue to…
In an attempt to comment upon the repeated violations of free speech and the rise in governmental prosecution of journalists in Turkey, two Turkish cartoonists themselves narrowly avoided a prison sentence this past week for their cartoon on the cover…
The events at the Charlie Hebdo offices last week have incited many people around the world to speak out about the attacks and its implications on free speech. From advocacy groups like CBLDF, Index on Censorship, and PEN America to…
As the number of political cartoons criticizing the Turkish government has increased, so have the drastic measures to stifle these forms of free speech. In an attempt to regulate the global image of Turkey as well as its rich and…
Turkish political cartoonist Musa Kart was recently acquitted of insulting his country’s president and former prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan via cartoon, but Kart says the repression of journalists in Turkey is only getting worse. In February of this year,…