Cartoon Debate Reaches the U.N.
This story originally appeared in PW Comics Week on October 31, 2006 Sign up now!
by Peter Sanderson, PW Comics Week -- Publishers Weekly, 10/31/2006
Following the controversy over the Danish cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad, the United Nations held a daylong seminar, “Cartooning for Peace: The Responsibility of Political Cartoonists,” at its Manhattan headquarters on October 16. On that same day a traveling exhibition, also called “Cartooning for Peace,” primarily featuring works by artists from around the globe who attended the seminar, opened in the headquarters’ Visitors’ Lobby (and can be seen online at www.cartooningforpeace.org).
The seminar and exhibit were originally conceived years ago by the French cartoonist Jean Plantu, whose work appears in the Parisian newspaper Le Monde. Plantu met with U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan back in January, shortly before the violent furor over the Muhammad cartoons erupted. Those cartoons and the Iranian response of exhibiting cartoons that mocked the Holocaust, were very much on the minds of the seminar’s participants.
Secretary-General Annan delivered the opening address, declaring that cartoons “have a special role in forming public opinion—because an image generally has a stronger, more direct impact on the brain than a sentence does,” and because more people will read a newspaper cartoon than take the time to read an article. While cartoons “can increase our empathy for the sufferings and frustrations of others,” Annan observed that they can also spread intolerance. “Short of physical pain, few things can hurt you more directly than a caricature of yourself, of a group you belong to, or—perhaps worst—of a person you deeply respect.” Here, presumably, Annan was alluding to the Muhammad cartoons, while in another part of his speech, he appeared to be pointing to the Holocaust cartoons. Annan warned against “getting into a kind of cartoon war reflecting the mentality of an eye for an eye. That approach, as Mahatma Gandhi taught us, leaves everyone blind.”
Nonetheless, Annan admitted that “cartoons can offend, and that is part of their point. ” And that, he said, is the means by which cartoons become “an important form of social and political comment.” Annan rejected censorship, preferring to “leave decisions about what to publish in the hands of editors and of the cartoonists themselves.” Urging cartoonists to “use their influence, not to reinforce stereotypes or inflame passions, but to promote peace and understanding,” Annan asserted that there was a need for reconciling both “freedom of expression and respect for the beliefs and feelings of others.”
The secretary-general’s speech was followed by the first of two panel discussions, “Should the Cartoonist Educate?” The cartoonists on this panel included Plantu, Cintia Bollo from Mexico, Carsten Graabaek from Denmark, Godfrey Amon Mwampembwa aka “Gado” from Kenya and American cartoonists Jeff Danzinger, Liza Donnelly and Mike Luckovich.
Although he had declined the invitation by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten to draw pictures of Muhammad, Carsten Graabaek was asked to come to the seminar to represent the Danish cartoonists who had. “It was with some trepidation I accepted the offer,” he confessed. Graabaek contended that freedom of speech was “a secular affair” whereas the Muslim ban on depicting Muhammad is “a spiritual matter.” But, Graabaek noted, many Muslims do not make this distinction. “They compare drawing Muhammad to the burning of our flag,” Graabaek said. “We can only shrug our shoulders.” He pessimistically concluded, “We can’t understand them. They can’t understand us.”
Mike Luckovich declared, “I don’t think you should incite people just to incite them, and I think that’s what the Danish cartoonists, or editors, did.” He warned that “the image can overwhelm the message,” because an image can be interpreted in ways that the cartoonist did not intend. As Gato put it, a cartoonist “can’t claim copyright for an interpretation.” Luckovich explained that he wanted to “tick people off” with his cartoons, but that the problem was “how can I rile people up without making them go berserk?”
A Danish reporter told the panelists, “I hear a lot of talk of us and them. Frankly, I see a lot of us.” Indeed, no one was supporting the Muslim perspective on the Danish cartoons. Moderator Shashi Tharoor, under-secretary-general for communications and public information, explained that Egyptian cartoonist Hussein Moustafa could not attend due to ill health, and Iranian cartoonist Hassan Karimzadeh was unable to obtain a visa in time.
Panelists for the second discussion—titled “Should Responsibilities Abridge Rights?”—included Plantu; American cartoonists Ranan Lurie and Ann Telnaes; Norio Yamanoi, known as No-Rio, from Japan; Michel Kichka from Israel; and the Palestinian cartoonist Baha Boukhari.
Telnaes stated the goal of editorial cartoonists: “We are here to make the powerful uncomfortable.” She continued, “It is said the measure of a healthy democracy is the health of a free press” and, mixing metaphors, that “the editorial cartoonist is the ultimate barometer” of that health.
Referring to the violence in response to the Danish cartoons, Lurie asserted, “The problem is not with the opinion maker; the problem is with the crazy people who do these things.” Boukhari found it “fascinating” that “cartooning,” which he described as a “language without words,” was now “added to the languages of the United Nations.” “I can measure freedom in every Arab country by how many cartoonists they have,” he added. The Israeli cartoonist, Kichka, offered his personal friendship with the Palestinian Boukhari as a sign of what can happen when individuals “put a human face on stereotypes.”
“I think I’m the only Buddhist here,” No-Rio said, adding, “I feel free to criticize the Buddhist religion. Buddha is very big. I’m very little. I can never hurt him.”
Emphasizing that it was “the cartoonist’s job to be a provocateur,” under-secretary Tharoor said cartoonists “must understand the audience so as not to be offensive.” And while it wasn’t clear if he realized he was quoting one of the most famous lines in American comic book history, Tharoor then told the audience, “with great power, as we all know, comes great responsibility.”
