Cartoonists and Turkish President Erdogan

Posted on January 4, 2015 by - free speech, human rights, politics

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan doesn’t seem to have much of a sense of humor.  The New York Times has a story about how the Turkish president is trying to limit how he is depicted in drawings by arresting cartoonists and charging them with libel and insulting government officials (which is apparently against the law in Turkey).  The Cartoonists Rights Network International also writes about it here.

My Washington Post cartoon about President Erdogan arresting a 16-year-old because the teenager criticized him received quite a bit of traffic on twitter among Turkish readers. It also ended up on the front page of Cumhuriyet, the oldest Turkish daily newspaper.

12302014CumhuriyetFront12292014ErdoganArrestsTeenager

World Press Freedom Day 2014

Posted on May 3, 2014 by - free speech, human rights, politics, society

pressToday is World Press Freedom Day.  When I do cartoons about the media I tend to concentrate on the American one and it’s usually to criticize (see previous post).  However, there are many journalists throughout the world who are willing to put their lives in danger on a regular basis because they believe in what they do.  A free press is indispensable for a free society; it must be protected.