Tag: political cartoon

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Je Suis Charlie

Here’s an example of the cartoons created by the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo prior to today’s brutal attack on their office by Muslim extremists in Paris, France, during which 12 people were killed and numerous others wounded. The cartoon says: “100 lashes if you don’t die of laughter.”

This issue, published in 2011, invited Muhammad to become a “guest editor.” After its publication, their office was fire-bombed. They refused to stop using humor and satire to combat fanatic fundamentalism. We stand in solidarity with them.

o-100-LASHES-570

See more Charlie Hebdo cartoons at Huffington Post here.

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Cartoonist to Face Criminal Charges for Parodying Legislator?

Moderator’s note: This won’t be the first time a satirist co-opted official letterhead to make a statement (see Joey Skaggs’ Brookyln Bridge Lottery Hoax, done in 1992), but it may be the last!!

Dane County DA considers charges against cartoonist who sent fake news
by Sandy Cullen
Wisconsin State Journal
March 14, 2012

Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne said Wednesday his office is considering whether to file a felony charge against a political cartoonist who reproduced the letterhead of state Rep. Steve Nass on a phony press release sent to a Madison newspaper.

Ozanne said Capitol Police have asked his office to determine whether Mike Konopacki of Madison should be charged with violating a state law that makes it a felony for someone who is not a public officer or public employee to act in an official capacity or to exercise any function of a public office.

The Class I felony is punishable by up to 3½ years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Ozanne said his office has the discretion to file a different felony or misdemeanor charge, or to not prosecute.

Konopacki, 60, said Wednesday he believes his parody “” which makes fun of Nass, a Republican from Whitewater, for his role in canceling an art exhibit related to last year’s protests at the state Capitol “” is protected political speech.

He said he sent the fake news release to the editorial page editor at The Capital Times, which posted an erroneous story on the paper’s website and on Capital Newspapers’ website, madison.com, on Feb. 25. It was removed a short while later after the paper learned the source document was a fabrication.

Konopacki, who specializes in labor issues, has drawn editorial cartoons for The Capital Times for many years on a freelance basis, the paper said in an online statement.

Continue reading “Cartoonist to Face Criminal Charges for Parodying Legislator?”

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Syrian Cartoonist Beaten

Syrian security forces break hands of political cartoonist Ali Ferzat
by Elizabeth Flock
Washington Post
August 25, 2011

Renowned Syrian political cartoonist Ali Ferzat was kidnapped, badly beaten, and left bleeding on the side of the road in an attack Thursday blamed on the security forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Ferzat had once had high hopes for Assad as leader, having been visited long ago by the aspiring opthamologist, who told the cartoonist all his work should be published “” even cartoons banned in the country, the Guardian reports.

But in recent years, Ferzat, now 60 and based in Damascus, had increasingly criticized not only the bureaucracy and corruption in Assad”s regime but also his brutal crackdown on protesters.

Continue reading “Syrian Cartoonist Beaten”

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