Cartoonists Rights

Death threats, physical attacks, an emergence of hate speech and accusations of official censorship of critical media have escalated the perilous situation for freedom of expression in Tunisia, say over 20 IFEX members.

Thirty IFEX members protested the sentencing of bloggers, citizen journalists and rights activists, jailed for up to 13 years in the biggest ever trial of pro-democracy activists in Vietnam.

Khaled El Masry, salafist lawyer and the new Secretary General of the National Centre for Defense and Freedoms in Egypt, sued cartoonist Doaa El Adl for her depiction of Adam and Eve which he deemed insulting to Islam. She has been charged with blasphemy.

While welcoming moves to implement measures that guarantee media independence, IFEX-TMG calls on the Tunisian government to fully respect free expression in the new Constitution and put an end to attacks on journalists and artists.

Professor Ambikesh Mahapatra and his neighbor Mr. Subrata Sengupta of West Bengal, India, learned that the police has dropped three of the four charges laid against them for emailing a very tame political cartoon to the members of their housing society.

IFEX-TMG supports media strike in Tunisia on 17 October to protest media appointments and the failure to guarantee media freedom in the draft Constitution.

While welcoming Tunisia’s acceptance of 110 of its 125 recommendations during a UN review last week, the IFEX-TMG calls on the country to implement them without delay and end the criminalisation of defamation.

Over 30 human rights groups worldwide have appealed for charges to be dropped against two men charged with several offences after circulating a harmless cartoon on an internal mailing list.