Chinese dissident on trial

From The Guardian.

Miss Mao

Chinese dissident artist Gao Zhen, known for making satirical sculptures of China’s former leader Mao Zedong, has been tried over accusations of “defaming national heroes and martyrs”.

Gao, 69, who was detained in 2024 during a visit to China from the US, faces a maximum three-year prison sentence.

Cartoonists’ & free speech orgs in support of LeMan magazine

From Cartoonists Rights International.

The undersigned are appalled by the victimization of staff at LeMan humor magazine, Istanbul in recent days, following the publication June 26th of a cartoon strip by Doğan Pehlevan, the content, meaning, and intent of which has been distorted by government officials in Turkey, leading to inaccurate media coverage and misguided public outrage and, ultimately, four jailed on multiple charges, two more colleagues wanted by police, and the entire entity under investigation for accepting foreign influence.

• Association of Canadian Cartoonists / L’Association de caricaturistes Canadien
• Daryl Cagle – Cagle Cartoons, Inc. (Newspaper Syndicate)
• Cartoon Movement
• Cartooning for Peace
• Cartoonists Rights
• Columbia Global Freedom of Expression
• European Cartoon Award
• Forum for Humour and the Law (ForHum)
• Freedom Cartoonists Foundation
• Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC Strategy
• Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation (PCO)
• ToonsMag

Zehra Ömeroğlu receives Robert Russell Courage in Cartooning Award 2025

From The Daily Cartoonist.

Cartoonists Rights has bestowed the 2025 Robert Russell Courage in Cartooning Award 2025 on Zehra Ömeroğlu, a Turkish cartoonist, who has been the target of criminal prosecution for a cartoon that was published in 2020 and faces a three year prison sentence.

The offending cartoon was published in Leman, a satirical magazine composed mainly of women. 

In 2022, she was summoned to the police station and informed of obscenity charges for her tongue-in-cheek pandemic-related cartoon.

Saudi Arabia sentences Mohammed al-Ghamdi to 23 years

From the Associated Press.

Saudi cartoonist Mohammed al-Ghamdi, who drew under the pen name Al-Hazza, has been sentenced to 23 years in prison, according to the Sanad Human Rights Organization.

The sentence for Mohammed al-Ghamdi marks the latest in a widening judicial crackdown on any perceived dissent in Saudi Arabia since the rise of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, now seen as the kingdom’s day-to-day ruler in place of his 88-year-old father King Salman.

Saudi officials did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday from The Associated Press. 

Drawn Testimony: My Four Decades as a Courtroom Sketch Artist

From The Washington Post.

Since 1946, cameras have been generally forbidden in federal courts, which means that TV viewers and newspaper readers often must use their imaginations when learning about a trial. 

The law has been relaxed since 1981, but artists are still in high demand to illustrate the drama behind courtroom doors.

Jane Rosenberg talks about her new book, “Drawn Testimony,” and shares the highs and lows of more than 40 years drawing dramatic courtroom moments.

Iranian Cartoonist Sentenced to Six Years

From The Daily Cartoonist. 

From Iran International:

The Revolutionary Court of Tehran has handed down a six-year prison sentence to Atena Farghadani, a cartoonist targeted for her critique of the government.

According to her attorney, Mohammad Moqimi, Farghadani has been behind bars since her arrest on April 13, charged with “insulting sacred values and propagating against the ruling system”. 

Farghadani received five years for the former and an additional year for the latter. Moqimi blasted the proceedings as a “sham trial” in a post on the X, denouncing the judiciary’s manipulation of charges to secure the harshest possible sentence.

The Zehra Ömeroğlu trial is postponed

 

The trial for "obscenity brought against cartoonist Zehra Ömeroğlu  for a drawing published in Leman which deals with the effects of Covid, could not be heard because the Istanbul Criminal Court judge of First Instance was excused.

The trial in which the illustrator risks a prison sentence is postponed until September 26.

Cartoonist Zehra Ömeroğlu risks imprisonment over pandemic cartoon

From Cartoonists Rights.

Sex and the pandemic… “At least I didn’t lose my taste and smell…”

Under the auspices of Türkiye’s Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Services, the Directorate of Child Services convenes a Board for the Protection of Minors from Obscene Publications. 

On March 8th, 2024, the board returned a report to the Istanbul 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance, having at the judge’s request reviewed a cartoon by Zehra Ömeroğlu that appeared in the pages of LeMan humour magazine on November 25th, 2020.

Atena Farghadani awaits verdict from Iranian court

From Cartoonists Rights.

Atena Farghadani – a painter, cartoonist, and former political prisoner – faces the prospect of criminalisation for the second time in the Islamic Republic of Iran, having stood trial in recent days on charges of insulting the Supreme Leader, Intelligence Ministry officials, and the Minister of Intelligence with a cartoon.

Readers will recall that Atena Farghadani has long criticised the totalitarian regime in Iran through protest art and as a result was arrested, tried, and convicted in 2014. 

For this she received our Courage in Cartooning Award in 2015.

Iranian cartoonist Atena Farghadani transferred to a Tehran hospital

From Cartoonist for Peace.

According to the latest information provided by her lawyer and shared by the Committee to Protect Journalists and Cartoonists Rights, Iranian cartoonist Atena Farghadani was admitted to intensive care on June 21, 2023 after being assaulted in prison. 

She had gone on a hunger strike because her food had been poisoned.

Supreme Court rules against Warhol Foundation

From The Washington Post.

Prince, photographed by Lynn Goldsmith in 1981

The Supreme Court on Thursday sided with a photographer who claimed the late Andy Warhol should have honored her copyright on a photo of the rock star Prince when creating an iconic artistic image of the late singer.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the court majority in the 7-2 decision, which legal experts said could carry far-reaching implications for copyright protection and so-called transformative art. 

The issue is the legal doctrine called “fair use,” which encourages artistic expression by allowing for the use of protected works without the original creator’s permission.

A Russian child's drawing sparked a police investigation

From the BBC.

Masha's school contacted the police after the 12-year-old drew this picture

In the centre of the Russian town of Yefremov is a wall covered in pictures of war. Giant photographs of masked Russian soldiers with guns and supersized letters Z and V - symbols of the country's so-called special military operation in Ukraine.

There's a poem, too:

Good should have fists.
Good needs an iron hand
To tear the skin from those
Who threaten it.

This is the official, patriotic picture of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

But in this town, 320km (200 miles) south of Moscow, you'll find another image of the Ukraine war. A very different one.

AI-Created Comic Deemed Ineligible for Copyright Protection

From CBR.

Reversing an earlier decision, the United States Copyright Office rules that a comic book made using A.I. art is ineligible for copyright protection.

Aislin cartoon at heart of discrimination lawsuit in the U.S.

From the Montreal Gazette. 

A former Delta Air Lines flight attendant is filing an employment discrimination lawsuit, saying she was fired for posting an editorial cartoon on her personal Facebook page by Montreal Gazette political cartoonist Aislin that depicted then-president Donald Trump wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood, CNN reported Saturday.

Copyright lawsuit proceeds against Disney and Pixar

 From The National Post.

If you were a student of animation at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ont., twenty years ago, you probably saw a 14-minute live-action low-budget student production about the internal life of a boy called Lewis and how his behaviour is controlled by five organs, each personified as a character: Brain, Stomach, Colon, Bladder and Heart.

It was called Inside Out.

PEN America Calls for the Release of Cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore

 From PEN America.

In the wake of the death in custody of Bangladeshi writer Mushtaq Ahmed last week, PEN America is deeply concerned about the health and well-being of codefendant cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore, who has reportedly undergone torture in detention at the Kashimpur High Security Prison and whose health is reportedly failing.

Jordan Alert – Emad Hajjaj

 From Cartooning for Peace.

"Israel asks the United States not to sell F35 to the United Arab Emirates"

The Criminal Magistrate’s Court of Amman (Jordan) has decided to cease the prosecution of cartoonist Emad Hajjaj.

Cartooning for Peace welcomes the court’s decision, taken at a hearing on 23 December 2020, to drop charges against the cartoonist for “contempt of a president of a foreign country against the provisions of 122/1 of the Penal Code” following the publication of the above cartoon .

Indian Supreme Court Issues Contempt Notice To Rachita Taneja

From Live Law.

The central figure, Arnab Goswami, surrounded by a figure representing

the ruling party and the Supreme Court, saying "You don't know who my father is."

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to comic illustrator Rachita Taneja on the petitions seeking criminal contempt action against her over her caricatures published in 'Sanitary Panels' social media handles about the judiciary. 

The notice is returnable within 6 weeks. The bench has dispensed with the personal presence of Taneja.

The bench noted that the Attorney General has granted consent for initiating contempt action.

Charlie Hebdo trial resumes

From Euronews. 

A man looks at a painting in tribute to the members of the Charlie Hebdo attack.

The trial over the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack resumes in Paris on Monday after being suspended for three weeks when several defendants tested positive for coronavirus.

But some French legal professionals have taken issue with the fact that primary suspect Ali Riza Polat, who is ill with COVID-19, will not appear in person at court, but via video link.

Robert Russell Courage in Cartooning Award 2020

 

Cartoonists Rights presents its annual Robert Russell Courage in Cartooning Award to Ahmed Kabir Kishore from Bangladesh.