The two previous instalments are available here.
Humour in trouble (II). Cases from 2017 to 2019
Humour in trouble (III). Cases from 2020 to 2022
Humour in trouble (IV). Cases from 2023 onwards
Total cases: 201
This is the first part of the list I started in 2014.
I wanted to compile cases that I remember, reviewed, or should have reviewed at the time, of cartoonists who have had problems of some importance because of their cartoons or satirical illustrations. There are also some cases of other people who, without being cartoonists, have had problems for sharing them.
I do not intend to collect them all, but will try to update the list as I recall or discover them. The "Muhammad cartoons" case is not added separately because it was spread over several years and triggered other events that are already well documented -(2). It is also referred to in many other directly or indirectly related cases. Nor have I dared to go back to the dates of censorship during the dictatorship in Spain because it would merit its own separate chapter and a much more thorough documentation work.
They have been ordered by year so that there is no hierarchy of importance or seriousness. In some cases, either because of age, country of occurrence or lack of reliable data, there are problems in discovering how they were resolved or in locating more direct sources, so any rectifications or contributions that help to refine the stories are welcome.
*Some notes are still awaiting answers to questions sent to related persons.
This entry is constantly being updated.
2016 Turkey / Musa Kart - Cumhuriyet
The Erdogan government arrested 13 journalists in a raid on the daily Cumhuriyet, including the editor, several editors and also the cartoonist Musa Kart, who ended up in prison. Five days later, during which they could not be defended by their lawyers, 10 people were remanded in custody.
2016 Italy / Charlie Hebdo
Mario Cichetti, lawyer for the municipality of Amatrice, one of the hardest hit by the earthquake of 24 August 2016, has filed a complaint with the Rieti public prosecutor's office for defamation against the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
2016 USA / Ben Garrison
Ben Garrison is said to be one of the most trolledAmerican political cartoonists on the internet, many of his cartoons have also been manipulated. In 2016 he confessed that he had lost the battle against his trolls.
2016 Australia / Ali, "Eaten Fish".
"Eaten Fish" is the pseudonym of a 24-year-old Iranian cartoonist named Ali Durani who spent three years locked up in the camp on Manus Island. He was finally able to get out thanks to the intervention of various organisations and individuals. In 2017 he left Papua New Guinea for a safe city in Europe thanks to the ICORN programme.
2016 Spain / José Manuel Álvarez "Napi" José Manuel Álvarez "Napi".
A cartoon by Napi published in issue 3,085 of the newspaper Mès Tarragona on Friday 15 July 2016 provoked the alluded to, Ernest Benach (ERC), former president of Parliament, to request a rectification from the newspaper.
2016 Jordan / Nahed Hattar
Writer Nahed Hattar was shot three times on Sunday 25 September 2016 in front of the court in Amman where he was on trial for the dissemination of a cartoon that the judiciary considered offensive to Islam. According to the official Petra news agency, the man who shot the writer was quickly arrested.
2016 Turkey / Dogan Güzet- Özgür Gündem
On 16 August 2016, the Turkish government closed the pro-Kurdish daily Özgür Gündem and arrested its 24 employees, including the cartoonist Dogan Güzel, who had fled Turkey in 2002, lived in Seville and was a Spanish national. After his release, Güzel said that the police maintained charges of resisting, insulting and assaulting the authorities.
2016 Australia / Bill Leak
On Thursday 4 August, a cartoon by Bill Leak was published in the Australian newspaper The Australian. Leak's cartoon was considered by many to be racist and prompted protests from Australian child and Aboriginal advocacy organisations, including the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, and social media campaigns against it.
2016 USA / Raúl Martínez, "Ramses II".
Raúl Martínez, "Ramsés II", received an email from The San Diego Union-Tribune, the newspaper he worked for. They informed him of their decision not to publish his latest cartoon on Trump's idea of building a wall that Mexicans would have to pay for, and informed him that they were no longer using his services. (Includes interview with the author).
2016 Turkey - Italy / Gianluca Costantini
Italian cartoonist Gianluca Costantini discovered that his blog was censored in July 2016 in Turkey. The .tr extension of his blog on Blogger (Google) for Turkey is no longer accessible in Turkey. The .com.tr extension is the default redirect if visiting from Turkey.
2016 Spain / El Jueves
A page of humour in a section of El Jueves entitled "Guía para sobrevivir...En Fuerteventura! provoked complaints from the Cabildo of Fuerteventura, and the Cabildo is demanding that the magazine "rectify its statements".
2016 Egypt / Al-Masry Al-Youm
Al-Masry Al-Youm, Egypt's largest private daily newspaper, received a large number of complaints and criticism for publishing a cartoon that many saw as a normalisation or apology for the sexual assault of women. The newspaper withdrew it and apologised.
2016 Spain / El Jueves
The director of the weekly satirical magazine El Jueves, Mayte Quílez, was assaulted early on 11 May at the entrance to her home in Barcelona on her way home from a jog. According to her account, an unidentified man, with his head covered by the hood of his sweatshirt, punched her in the face and fled.
2016 Turkey / LeMan Magazine
The Turkish satirical magazine "Leman" had prepared a special on the 15 July coup that was to be published on Wednesday morning, 20 July 2016, but the police prevented its distribution so that it would not go out of print. At 3 a.m., some people also tried to storm the magazine's offices, but no one was there. The police had to intervene to prevent them from invading the building.
2016 Ecuador / Vilma Vargas
The painter and cartoonist Vilma Vargas "Vilmatraca" had her exhibition at the Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana "Benjamín Carrión" building censored. The organisation justified the "cutting" of her exhibition of vignettes as "opposition to the regime" and "pamphletary" political content.
2016 Argentina / Barcelona Magazine
The Argentinean courts ordered the satirical magazine "Barcelona" to pay Cecilia Pando 40000 pesos in compensation for the publication of a satirical photomontage in which Pando was shown tied up with ropes, using her face to which the body of another woman was added.
2016 USA / Rick Friday
The weekly Farm News, aimed at Iowa farmers, bowed to pressure from an advertiser (Monsanto) and fired Rick Friday after 21 years as a cartoonist for the publication. Two months later, the publication apologised to the cartoonist and offered him a new contract. Rick accepted and returned to the weekly.
2016 Lebanon / Amjad Rasmi
A cartoon by London-based Jordanian cartoonist Amjad Rasmi, published on Friday 1 April, was the motive for the raid on the offices of the Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat in Beirut. The event forced the removal of the image from its website.
2016 Bulgaria / Tchavdar Nikolov
Bulgarian cartoonist Tchavdar Nikolov published animated cartoons on the VBOX7 platform of NOVA TV, one of the country's largest private television channels. The channel removed the animation, an interview with Nikolov and the rest of the works on the website, some 90 animations. It also cancelled the author's contract. Following protests against this decision, the company republished all the cartoonist's work and offered him a new contract.
2016 Egypt / Islam Gawish
On the afternoon of Sunday 31 January, Egyptian cartoonist Islam Gawish was arrested and released shortly afterwards. There are two versions of the reasons for his arrest. According to his lawyer, his arrest was motivated by some of his cartoons critical of the government. The authorities' version is that he was running a news website without a licence.
2016 Turkey / Carlos Latuff
This case is noteworthy because it is an attempt to censor a foreign author in Turkey. Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff said in an interview that Turkey is the only country where access to his blog has been officially blocked, and claimed to have documents from the Turkish government certifying the ban.
2016 Saudi Arabia/ Abdullah Jaber
On 28 December 2015, the Saudi cartoonist Abdullah Jaber published a cartoon parodying the lack of critical sense of citizens who never question the messages of their rulers. He then disappeared and reappeared days later claiming that the authorities had banned his cartoons from all newspapers in the kingdom indefinitely.
2016 Ecuador / El Universos newspaper
On 6 January 2016, Geovanni Augusto Jaramillo Barros filed a complaint with Intercom against the newspaper El Universo for a cartoon by Xaviel Bonil. The complainant considers that the image published in El Universo on 28 December 2105 "advocates or promotes discrimination, sexism, transphobia, etc".
2016 USA / Glenn Ferguson & Fredrick Torres
In January 2016, cartoonist Frederick Torres stabbed fellow cartoonist Glenn Ferguson in the head and neck with scissors, leaving him in an induced coma in hospital after a lengthy surgery session. In 2017, Torres was sentenced to life in prison for attempted first-degree murder.
2016 USA / Jayme Gordon
In 2011, cartoonist Jayme Gordon sued DreamWorks claiming that the film Kung Fu Panda (2008) plagiarised his characters created between 1990 and 2000. On 3 May 2017, Jayme Gordon was sentenced to two years in prison, three years of probation and ordered to pay more than $3 million in restitution to DreamWorks for fraud, fraud and perjury.
2015 USA / Ann Telnaes
The Washington Post decided to withdraw a cartoon/animation gif by Ann Telnaes, published on Tuesday 22 December, in which the daughters of Republican candidate Ted Cruz were caricatured as little monkeys. The cartoon satirised the use of his family for political purposes, alluding to a video campaigning for the candidate's primaries in a humorous way.
2015 Iran / Hadi Heidari
The cartoonist Hadi Heidari was arrested on 16 November 2015 at the newspaper Shahrvand by Iranian government agents. Some sources link his arrest to the publication of a cartoon in which he expressed solidarity with France over the Paris attacks of 13 November 2015.
2015 Algeria / Tahar Djehiche
Algerian cartoonist Tahar Djehiche was charged with insulting Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and "inciting the crowd". He was tried and acquitted in May 2015, but in November 2015 he was convicted on appeal by a court in Lemghir and sentenced to six months' imprisonment and a fine of 50,000 dinars.
2015 Denmark / Lars Vilks
On 14 February 2015, a shooting took place in Copenhagen during an appearance at a cultural centre by the French ambassador to Denmark, François Zimeray. He was speaking about Islamism and freedom of expression and paying tribute to Charlie Hebdo magazine. The Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, author of the 2007 cartoons of Mohammed, was at the event and survived the attack.
2015 France / Charlie Hebdo
7 January 2015, two terrorists break into the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and kill 12 people, including five cartoonists, and injure 11 others to varying degrees. All indications are that the motives for the massacre were once again the publication of cartoons of Mohammed and the cartoons on Islam that the weekly regularly depicts.
2014 United Kingdom/ The Economist
On Thursday 16 January 2014, the British newspaper The Economist published a cartoon by Peter Shrank accompanying an article on Iran's nuclear programme. Various organisations accused the newspaper of anti-Semitism. The newspaper eventually withdrew the cartoon and apologised.
2014 Ecuador / Bonil & El Universo
Once again, Supercom has taken action against cartoonist Bonil and the newspaper El Universo. This time for a cartoon/photomontage published on 5 August 2014 in the newspaper El Universo. According to the plaintiffs, the image launches "discriminatory messages that denote apology of discrimination or incitement to discriminatory acts".
2015 Palestine / Mohammad Saba'anehh
The cartoon by cartoonist Mohammad Saba'anehh was published on Sunday 1 February in the official West Bank-based daily al-Hayat al-Jadida. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced that the image will be investigated after some people found it offensive.
2014/2008 Belgium /MO Magazine
The story goes back to March 2006, when MO Magazine published a dossier on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The cover of the dossier, entitled "Georges Forrest: Congo's Copper King", featured a caricature of the Belgian industrialist wearing the leopard cap of former Zairean president Mobutu Sese-Seko. George Forrest sued the journalist and the magazine for defamation.
2014 Ireland/ Martyn Turner
The Irish Times apologised and removed from its website a cartoon by Martyn Turner on child abuse in the church published on 16 April in response to pressure from priests.
2014 Malaysia /Zunar
Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque is the name of the Malaysian cartoonist who signs his name as "Zunar". He was questioned by police at Dang Wangi police station in Kuala Lumpur on 20 November. This author has been a political cartoonist for more than two decades, much of which time he has suffered persecution and censorship by the government, as can be seen in his record.
2014 Turkey / LeMan Magazine
Yücel Barakazi, mayor of Bingöl (Turkey) threatened to sue the humorous magazine LeMan for one of its covers drawn by Güneri Içoglu and Aslan Özdemir.
2014 Turkey / Musa Kart
Turkish prosecutors have charged cartoonist Musa Kart with insulting and insulting the Turkish president for a cartoon published on 1 February 2014 in the daily Cumhuriyet. They are asking for nine years and ten months in prison for the cartoonist, and the case will be brought to court on 23 October 2014.
2014 Turkey/ Mehmet Düzenli
Turkish cartoonist, Mehmet Düzenli, was sent to prison on Thursday 12 June in the city of Alanya to serve a three-month sentence after being accused of insulting Adnan Oktar, a controversial Muslim preacher popular for his "televangelist" activity and for his creationist, anti-Zionist and Holocaust denial ideas.
2014 Venezuela/ Fernando Mario Pinilla Gonzalez "Pinilla"
Mario Pinilla, the cartoonist for the newspapers La Voz, La Región and the magazine Clímax, reported on his Twitter account that on the night of Monday 11 August he received death threats by telephone.
2014 Belgium-Colombia/ Pascal "Pad'R" and RTBF
A cartoon by cartoonist Pad'R, shown on Belgian television station RTBF, in which three Colombian national team players are shown crouching down and sniffing the referee's spray on the pitch, prompted the Colombian ambassador to Belgium to express his indignation and demand a rectification and apology.
2014 Spain/ El Jueves, various authors
The disappearance of the cover of El Jueves nº 1932 from its website with a joke by Manel Fontdevila about the abdication of King Juan Carlos triggered the abandonment of a good number of authors. The first news spoke of printing problems, but the reality was that the publishing company (RBA) had decided to withdraw and/or destroy the copies and also prohibited the magazine from showing jokes about the Royal Household on the cover.
2014 Spain/ Iratxe Fernández "AtxE" & Laura Santolaya "p8ladas".
The Huffington Post (PRISA) did not want to publish this cartoon by "AtxE" about the monarchy with the ambiguous argument of its director (Montserrat Domínguez):"it did not convince its director and will not be published". AtxE announced, with another cartoon, on its Twitter account that it was no longer collaborating with the newspaper. The following day another contributor, Laura Santolaya, also announced that she would stop collaborating for the same reason.
2014 Bolivia/ Alejandro Salazar "Al-Azar"
In March, during the Oruro Carnival, a catwalk collapsed on a group of people. The result was five dead and dozens injured. Alejandro Salazar "Al-Azar" made an allusive cartoon for the newspaper La Razón. Offended political representatives and groups sent complaints to the newspaper. Some called for the sacking of the author and went so far as to threaten to burn the newspapers and prevent their circulation.
2014 Ecuador / Xavier Bonilla Zapata, "Bonil".
A "Bonil" joke related to a police raid on Fernando Villavicencio's house led Supercom to request a copy of the cartoon and the cartoonist's details, opening a process in which the author had to defend himself and explain his cartoon. Finally, the newspaper was fined 2% of its average turnover for the last three months and the cartoonist was given 72 hours to publish a correction of the cartoon.
2014 Algeria/ Djamel Ghanem
Particularly curious case. Djamel Ghanem, a cartoonist for the Algerian daily La Voix de l'Oranie, was reportedly sued by the editor of his own newspaper before an examining magistrate in Oran for "insulting the president" in a cartoon in which he was not even depicted or mentioned.
2013 India / Kanika Mishra
For Kanika Mishra, the problems began in 2013, when she drew cartoons critical of Asaram Bapu, a popular religious leader and self-proclaimed god-man who had been accused of raping a minor. He received insults and threats of death and rape online and by phone, and spent five months afraid to go out fearing an attack. He finally resisted and decided to report the threats to the police.
2013 Spain / Pepe Farruqo
The cartoonist Jose Fco López Rivera, who signs as"Pepe Farruqo", collaborated in the newspaper ARA from 2011 to 2013 with a daily cartoon. The author claimed(2) that several of his cartoons were censored and that a call from Mònica Tarribas to the editorial office may have been what caused the end of the collaboration. Farruqo also claims that during those two years they were censored a good handful of vignettes, which made him feel disappointed.
2013 Peru/ Carlos Tovar "Carlín".
Enrique Mendoza, president of the judiciary, demanded a rectification from"Carlín", warning him that if he did not do so he would sue him in court. The cause was a cartoon published in the print and online edition of the Peruvian newspaper La República, where Carlín has worked since 2002.
2013 Mexico / Fernando de Anda "El Fer".
The newspaper Excélsior manipulated and published the cartoon of "El Fer", completely changing the text and the author's original message. El Fer made public the manipulation of the media and although he received an apology on Twitter from the editor, he quit his job after seven years publishing in this newspaper.
2012 Argentina / Gustavo Sala
On 19 January 2012, Página/12 published in its supplement "NO" this cartoon by Gustavo Sala, which provoked complaints in communiqués from different collectives accusing its author of anti-Semitism. The cartoon was withdrawn.
2012 Syria/ Akram Raslan
Akram Raslam was arrested on 2 October 2012, since when there have been only rumours about the Syrian cartoonist's legal situation. In September 2015, the Syrian magazine Souriatna claimed that Akram Raslam had died in hospital sometime in the spring of 2013 due to his fragile state of health caused by torture.
2012 India / Aseem Trivedi
In December 2011, Trivedi received an email from the company hosting his website announcing that the domain and hosting of the site were being suspended for displaying objectionable images and text related to the Indian flag and coat of arms. In September 2012, the cartoonist was arrested in Mumbai on charges of sedition for his cartoons about corruption in India and charged with insulting the national emblems.
2012 Iran/ Mahmoud Shokraiyeh
Mahnoud was sentenced to 25 lashes for a cartoon published in Nameye Amir, a newspaper in the city of Arak, depicting a member of parliament wearing a football shirt and holding a congratulatory diploma in one hand.
2011 France / Charlie Hebdo
On 2 November 2011, the offices of the satirical magazine "Charlie Hebdo" were partially burned down (destroyed by an incendiary bomb, according to the cartoonist Luz). The attack coincided with the publication of the 1011st issue of the special"Sharia Hebdo".
2012 Syria/ Akram Raslan
Farzat was abducted in August 2011 by a group of masked men, speculated to be members of the security services, who assaulted and beat him in Umayyad Square, fracturing his left hand (with which he draws) and right arm, and burning his body with cigarettes. His left hand (the one he draws with) and right arm were broken, and his body was burnt with cigarettes, and the attackers reportedly threatened to break both his hands to prevent him from continuing to draw.
1992/2011 Cameroon/ Paul Nyemb - "Popoli".
Cameroonian "Popoli's" troubles date back to 1992, when the governor of Douala ordered his arrest for a series of political cartoons critical of local and national government officials. To avoid arrest, Popoli hid in a swamp for 20 days. His ordeal had only just begun.
2011 Malaysia /Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, "Zunar".
Zunar had to deal with 10 years of constant state persecution and censorship for his cartoons critical of high-ranking government officials. Zunar was arrested and charged with sedition. The cartoonist filed lawsuits over his detention and the seizure of his books and magazines.
2010 USA / Jim Davis
And now a silly row over a cat and spiders. Jim Davis had to apologise for a Garfield strip that former US servicemen found offensive when it had absolutely nothing to do with them.
2010 South Africa / Zapiro
In May 2010, Muslim groups attempted to prevent the publication of a cartoon by Zapiro in the South African weekly Mail&Guardian depicting the Prophet Muhammad. In 2016, the cartoonist was targeted by the Thulsie twins.
2010 South Africa / Zapiro
Another cartoon by Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro) is once again a bone of contention. South African president Jacob Zuma sued a media group over a 2008 cartoon depicting him as a rapist in a gang rape scene in which 'Justice' appears as the person being raped.
2010 Germany / Titanic Magazine
Since its inception, the German satirical magazine "Titanic" has been hijacked 35 times, several personalities filed successful lawsuits. The Church has had to deal with it on several occasions. The publisher had to face 55 lawsuits and the magazine went through hard times that brought it to the brink of insolvency.
2010 Spain / C. M. Meca, R. Betancort, J.F. Carreño
This story began on 18 January 2008. The satirical website "El Agitador", published a humorous photomontage together with a text. On 25 November 2010, Court No. 1 of Arrecife issued an order to remove the cartoon from the website. In 2013, the authors were sentenced to pay almost 20,000 euros, but it did not stop there.
2010 Sri Lanka / Prageeth Eknaligoda
Journalist and cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda left his work in Colombo on the night of 24 January 2010 and was never seen again. He was 50 years old at the time. It was two days before the presidential election in Sri Lanka. Prageeth is one of the thousands of missing persons in Sri Lanka.
2009 Spain / Carles Romeu Müller "Romeu".
It was not the first time that cartoons about Israel's actions in Palestine provoked complaints, but a cartoon by Romeu in El País published on 30 June 2009 prompted Jacobo Israel Garzón, president of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain, to send a letter to the newspaper entitled "Tópicos", which was published on 3 July.
2009 Italy/ Vauro Senesi
RAI, Radiotelevisione Italiana, chose to suspend its collaborator, cartoonist and journalist Vauro Senesi from a programme on its second channel for his treatment of the L'Aquila earthquake disaster on 6 April, which received an avalanche of criticism, including from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the president of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Gianfranco Fini.
2009 Morocco/ Khalid Gueddar
A cartoon by Jhalid Gueddar, published in September on the front page of the daily Akhbar Al Youm depicting Prince Moulay Ismail, cousin of King Mohammed VI, resulted in a definitive closure order for the newspaper. Also, a fine of 8,900 euros was imposed on the cartoonist and a fine of the same amount on the editor of the newspaper, as well as a year's imprisonment for both, although it seems that they will not have to go to prison.
2009 Mexico/ Mario Robles Patiño
On 19 April 2009, the Mexican cartoonist of the newspaper Noticias Voz e Imagen De Oaxaca (Mexico) was attacked for the cartoons he drew criticising Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz and members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
2009 USA / Mike Peters
A cartoon by Mike Peters is published in several US newspapers. Gabriel Silva, manager of the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia (Federacafé) announced a lawsuit claiming 20 million dollars in damages for intellectual property damage and defamation for linking organised crime activities with coffee producers.
2008 Spain/ Sergio de Horna (Citibank) vs. CGT
In July 2008, the cartoonist Carlos Azagra testified as a witness at the Court of First Instance in Alcobendas (Madrid). The director of Citibank España, Sergio de Horna, had sued the CGT trade union for an offence against the right to honour, privacy and image for the cartoon by Carlos Azagra published in issue 1538 of the magazine El Jueves which the CGT trade union section used in a poster to denounce fraudulent practices on the part of Citibank.
2008 Spain / José Antonio Rodríguez González and Javier Ripa and Nicola Lococo
The Basque newspapers Deia, its supplement Caduca HOY, and Gara published in 2006 a satirical cartoon and an article in relation to the "Mitrofán" case, the name of the bear that King Juan Carlos was said to have killed during a hunt in Russia. For these works, the authors were charged with serious insult to the crown in the figure of the king. They were acquitted on 22 December 2008.
2007 Spain/ Manel Fontdevila and Guillermo Torres
On 20 July, Judge del Olmo ordered the seizure of issue 1,573 of the magazine El Jueves and requested that all copies be withdrawn from points of sale, the reason being its cover. Guillermo's drawing, with a script by Manel, under the headline"2,500 euros per child" showed caricatures of Prince Felipe and Letizia in bed practising the doggy style. The scene illustrated a joke about the ZP government's baby cheque. The authors were convicted of insulting the crown prince.
2006 Turkey / LeMan Magazine & Mehmet Cagcag
Then Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sued the satirical magazine LeMan and its cartoonist Mehmet Cagcag for 25,000 Turkish Liras (16,700 USD at the time) for a cartoon depicting him as a tick.
2006 Iran / Mana Neyestani
Mana Neyestani published a cartoon in the supplement of the daily "Iran" and it was the trigger for his problems. The cartoon depicted a cockroach character speaking Azeri. Ethnic Azeris interpreted this as an insult and demonstrations and riots broke out. The cartoonist received death threats.
2002 Panama/ Víctor Ramos López "Vic
The former president from 1994 to 1999, Ernesto Pérez Balladares, filed a complaint against the cartoonist of La Prensa, Víctor Ramos "Vic", for an alleged offence against honour under article 175 of the Penal Code, for which he could be sentenced to up to two years in prison.
2000 Panama/ Enrique Briceño "RAC
RAC and the editor of La Prensa were sued by Panama's former vice-president Arias Calderón on the grounds that he was insulted in a cartoon of 30 December 2000 in which a caricature of Calderón appears hand in hand with a figure representing death with the acronym of the political group Partido Revolucionario Democrático (Democratic Revolutionary Party).
2000 Iran / Nikahang Kowsar
Iranian cartoonist Nikahang Kowsar was imprisoned by Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi in early February 2000 for caricaturing him as a crocodile. Although the matter was settled, Kowsar's real problems had only just begun.
1997 Spain/ Francisco Javier Martín Merlo and Antonio José Martín Merlo "Gato".
Between 1997 and 2003, one of the longest and crudest legal battles in living memory was fought between the satirical magazine "El Batracio Amarillo" on the one hand, and the PSOE of Motril (Granada) and the socialist mayor Luis Manuel Rubiales on the other. A long crossroads of lawsuits, satirical articles and cartoons.
1994 Spain/ Antonio Mingote & ABC
The Basque government seconded the proposal of the Minister of Commerce and Tourism Rosa Díez (PSOE) to file a civil lawsuit against the newspaper ABC and the cartoonist Antonio Mingote, for "aggression against the autonomous community, negligence and imprudence".
1991 Panama / Joaquín Carrasquilla
The then president of Panama, Guillermo Endara, brought a libel and slander charge against cartoonist Joaquín Carrasquilla, arguing that he had dishonoured, discredited and belittled him in a cartoon. The cartoon was published in the newspaper La Prensa and depicted the president with money in his pocket as he said goodbye to Colonels Marcos Justine and Rafael Cedeño.
1990 Spain / Ramón
The cartoonist Ramón Gutiérrez Díaz, who signs as Ramón, or R, sent his cartoon to the newspaper "YA" at the end of January 1990, in which a character changes the name of the Constitutional Court to "Prostitutional". On 23 February his cartoon was published again, to illustrate the news that the Attorney General, at the request of the Minister of Justice, Enrique Múgica, had filed a criminal complaint against the cartoonist.
1978 Spain / Colectivo Zeta (8 authors)
The year was 1978. According to the chronicles of the time, an anonymous complainant considered that in issue 3 of the Zeta fanzine there were two jokes that could constitute a crime against religious freedom. In October 1979, the trial was held and the eight cartoonists were convicted and were on the verge of being imprisoned.
Guide to cartoonists.
