2017 Spain / Cels Piñol
The Spanish embassy in Bulgaria cancelled the lecture that the Catalan cartoonist Cels Piñol, creator of Fanhunter, was to give at the National Art Academy in Sofia. The reason, according to the author's statement: "They have seen my position in favour of the referendum and the republic, and for this reason they thought it appropriate to cancel it".
Cels told the media the organisers' arguments for cancelling the conference: "They told me that they had looked at my profile and that they had seen that since 1 October I had been very active and they didn't want any trouble".
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2017 European Union / Various authors
The exhibition entitled 'EU Turns 60: A Cartoon Party', which celebrated the 60th anniversary of the creation of the European Union, was amputated by Liberal MEP Catherine Bearder, the MEP responsible for cultural and artistic events, who has approved its display provided that twelve of the twenty-eight cartoons that were part of the exhibition were removed.
The 12 cartoons were rejected on the grounds that they contained "controversial content" and "could affect the outcome of the elections in Germany on 24 September". An absurd argument, given that the exhibition was not scheduled to open until the 26th of the same month.
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2017 Equatorial Guinea / Ramón Esono
The cartoonist Ramón Esono Ebalé was arrested at around 19:00 on Saturday 16 September in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, where he had travelled to renew his passport and was taken to the police headquarters, popularly known as "Guantánamo".
According to the account of two of his friends, who were with him at the time of his arrest, Ramón was interrogated about his drawings and texts.
On Sunday 17 September, Esono's case became more complicated, he was accused of being the main promoter of a money counterfeiting network and sent to "Black Beach", the toughest prison in Africa, where he was to spend more than 5 months.
At the trial the trial held on Tuesday 27 February 2018 in Malabo dropped all charges against Ramón Esono and it was learned that he would be released in a few days.
Ramon Esono was released on 7 March 2017 and began to organise his trip to El Salvador to join his family.
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2017 United Kingdom/ Naji al-Ali
On the 30th anniversary of the assassination in London of Palestinian cartoonist Naji Salim Hussain Al-Ali, creator of the popular character "Handala"The case has been reopened by investigators from the Counter Terrorism Command (CTC) of the Metropolitan Police.
At around 17:10 on Wednesday 22 July 1987, Naji al-Ali, a political cartoonist for the Kuwaiti daily Al-Qabas, was shot in the back of the head as he made his way to his office in Ives Street, Knightsbridge.
Al-Ali, 51, was taken to hospital, where he remained in a coma for 37 days until he died on 29 August 1987. The cartoonist had received several death threats in the years leading up to his murder.
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2017 Russia / Viktor Nochevnov
On 3 August 2017, Viktor Nochevnov, a 32-year-old Russian citizen living in Sochi was convicted of "offending the religious feelings of believers". His crime was sharing satirical cartoons (which he did not create) about Jesus Christ on the social network Vkontakte (VK) in 2014.
Although he removed the cartoons at the time, he could not avoid prosecution under a 2013 law and was ordered to pay a fine of 50,000 roubles, about $830. His lawyer announced that he would appeal the sentence.
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2017 Puerto Rico/ Harold Jessurun and Aníbal Quiñones
On 11 July, the Puerto Rican newspaper "Primera Hora" published the cartoon of the series "Pepito" by Harold Jessurun and Aníbal Quiñones, as it had been doing for 10 years. And that was the last one.
After complaints from several politicians, the newspaper decided to suspend the strip and fire its creators.
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2017 Brazil / Osmani Simanca
In June 2017, the cartoonist Osmani Simanca was fired from the Brazilian daily A Tarde.
This Cuban-born and naturalised Brazilian cartoonist had been working for more than 15 years for the newspaper A Tarde, the oldest in the state of Bahia and one of the oldest in Brazil. It has been in print since 1912.
According to the author, he was not fired for a specific cartoon but for his criticism of the government of Michel Temer and his allies. In other words, for the whole of his cartoons in 2016.
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2017USA/ Liam Shea
In early June Morristown High School mounted its art and design exhibition of student work, the theme of the art class this time being "America Takes a selfie".
Liam Shea's five-foot-talldrawing was removed and the student was informed that it would not be part of the exhibition.
Another student' s painting showing Trump riding a missile taking a selfie was also withdrawn.
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2017 South Africa /Zapiro
On 9 July 2016, South African police arrested four suspected terrorists planning attacks on embassies, other Jewish institutions and individuals in Pretoria, as part of an alleged plan to join the self-styled terrorist group "Islamic State" (IS)
In 2017, during the trial of the detainees, it emerged that the well-known Jewish cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro "Zapiro" was on the list of targets, planning to kill him "for drawing cartoons about the messenger of Allah".
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2017 Turkey / Orhan Aydin
Turkish actor and columnist Orhan Aydin was sentenced to 11 months and 20 days in prison for insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for sharing on the Internet this cartoona 2015 book by Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff.
A court in Istanbul issued this verdict on charges of insulting the Turkish president. The fact that Aydin shared Latuff's cartoon about Erdogan's trip to Cuba on social media was one of the proofs of the "insult".
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2017 India / Inturi Ravikiran
Inturi Ravikiran (Tw) a political comedian who posts his humorous photomontages on social media was arrested by Andhra Pradesh Police in Hyderabad (India) at 3:30 am on Friday, April 21.
A dozen policemen surrounded Ravikiran's house and bundled him into a car without informing the family where he was being taken.
When his wife, Sujana Ravikiran, asked the police about the cause of his arrest she was told that "he was posting insulting satires about the prime minister" Nara Chandrababu Naiduhis son Nara Lokesh and the TDP (Telugu Desam Party)
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2017 Palestine / Osama Nazzel
In the early hours of Monday 27 March 2017, a group of around 30 Israeli army soldiers surrounded and raided the cartoonist's studio Osama Nazzelthe group of soldiers was surrounded and raided the cartoonist's studio in his parents' house in the town of Kafr Ni'ma.
They kept his relatives locked in a room and interrogated them to ask about the cartoonist. In addition to ransacking the place and taking down paintings and tearing drawings hanging on the wall, they confiscated some of his work.
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2017 Norway / Arifur Rahman
On 1 March 2017, a man violently broke into the exhibition of cartoonist Arifur Rahman "Arif" and unhung and took 4 of his 25 works. Two of the drawings stolen from the exhibition were recovered.
The exhibition was related to the newly arrived asylum seekers in the Norwegian town of Drøbak.
The man, who behaved in a threatening manner, said the drawings were blasphemous. The cartoonist believes that two other people who were at the entrance of the room were related to the attacker.
According to the cartoonist, none of the organisers of the event tried to arrest the man and he alleged that city officials tried to hush up the event. Furthermore, the municipality tried to persuade the cartoonist not to report the theft on the grounds that the incident could affect other asylum seeker cases and could also change "the population's perception of all new refugees arriving in the municipality". He also noted that the municipality tried to get the local media to hush up the news of the attack.
Arifur Rahman(Twitter- Web) is a Bangladeshi cartoonist exiled in Norway. He works as a freelance cartoonist for Norwegian newspapers and studies 3D and Animation. He has received several national awards and is the founder and editor of tOOns MaG.
The cartoonist has been living in Norway since 2010 as a guest of ICORN (International Cities of Refuge Network), an independent organisation that offers refuge to writers and artists at risk.
Rahman was persecuted, imprisoned and tortured for his cartoons in Bangladesh. In 2007 he was arrested and imprisoned for six months for a cartoon that the Bangladesh Islamic Party considered offensive. In 2009 he was jailed again for two months for the same cartoon.
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2017 Spain / José Manuel Sande
February 2017. Aurora Carro, president of the Association of Widows of Lugo, and six other people filed a complaint in A Coruña's duty court.
The reason for the complaint was this poster the complaint was based on a Carnival cartoon depicting a character dressed as a pope, which they considered offensive to "religious feelings".
At the end of March, José Manuel Sande, councillor for culture in Lugo, was summoned for an alleged offence against religious feelings and will have to appear on 17 April 2017 in A Coruña's Court of Instruction number 3.
Aurora Carro wants the councillor to apologise publicly.
Update 24 May 2107.
The case against the councillor of Cultures for the Carnival posteris archived. The Court of Instruction number 3 assures that the design does not despise religious feelings, that it is only a caricature. This decision can be appealed.
The prosecution maintains that the poster is:
"...at most, a provocative or satirical image and would not directly or indirectly question any dogma, belief, rite or ceremony of the Catholic religion" and that ""there is not even the certainty that it depicts the Pope".
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2017 Spain / Eduard Torres
On 14 February 2017, the Diari de Terrassa published this cartoon by Eduard Torres, "Don Edi". It was immediately branded as sexist, despicable, shameful and misogynist.
Podem, PSC, CUP, LGTB Terrassa, the 8 March commission of the Terrassa City Council and other individuals rejected the cartoon.
The newspaper published a note of apology from the cartoonist and an editorial on the matter, entitled "Error" in which they also apologised.
What is noteworthy in this case is that the staff of the Terrasa newspaper issued a statement rejecting the cartoon by Don Edi on behalf of the workers and dissociating themselves from it.
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2017 Turkey / Seyfi Sahin - Girgir Magazine
The most surprising thing about this case is that, on this occasion, the editors themselves have applied self-censorship, acted as thought police and closed down the publication, firing all the workers.
The satirical magazine Girgir, published by the Estetik publishing house, was distributed as a free weekly supplement to the daily Sözcü. The editors said they were closing the magazine, one of the most widely read in Turkey, because of a cartoon that was deemed offensive to Jews and Muslims.
In the cartoon the Jewish prophet, also considered a sacred figure in Islam and Christianity, is telling how he parted the waters of the Red Sea, the people listening around him complain, using a swear word, that he is always repeating the same stories.
July 2017 update: Turkish cartoonist Seyfi Sahin is sentenced to 18 months in prison
The trial began on Tuesday 18 July 2017. The prosecution requested 18 months in prison for Seyfi Sahin, although this may be raised to 1 year and nine months.
Finally, on 24 May 2018, the cartoonist was sentenced to 1 year and 15 days in prison.
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2017 Turkey / Baris Inan
According to the blog of the Turkish magazine Homur, the cartoonist Baris Inan (1973), who is currently in prison, was sued by the Turkish prosecutor's office for caricaturing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a baby.
The trial was due to take place on 31 January 2017, at the criminal court of first instance in Izmit-Kandira.
Baris Inan is a political cartoonist who has published his cartoons in Homur magazine and the daily Özgur Gündem, which was temporarily shut down by the Turkish government in August 2016.
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