PRESS CONFERENCE ON ‘CARTOONING FOR PEACE’ SEMINAR

 

Political cartoons should be hard-hitting, but they also must show respect for religious beliefs and other deep sensitivities, French cartoonist Jean Plantu, co-organizer of a United Nations seminar on cartooning and intolerance, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

“Now that our cartoons are on the web we have a responsibility –- and we have to be much more intelligent”, Mr. Plantu explained, noting that the deaths that ensued after the publication of the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed made many cartoonists stop and think.

“Cartooning for peace: The responsibility of political cartoonists?”, which began this morning and will run through the afternoon, is the fifth seminar in the “Unlearning intolerance” series of the Department of Public Information.

Joining Mr. Plantu at today’s press conference were cartoonists Jeff Danziger of the United States, Baha Boukhari of Palestine, Carsten Graabek of Denmark and Michel Kichka from Israel.  Shashi Tharoor, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information of the United Nations introduced the panel.

In response to correspondents’ questions, the panellists agreed that there was no formula for deciding what material crossed the line of gratuitous offensiveness.  Instead, each cartoonist made a subjective decision regarding each image, keeping in mind feedback already received from previous images.

Mr. Graabek said that he had simply decided not to draw a cartoon of Mohammed, because he never had any strong feelings against the prophet.  “One must have some sort of sentiment toward whatever the topic is”, he said, noting that anger and vexation were the best for political cartoons.

Panellists also agreed it was important not to be intimidated, and to make sure freedom of opinion was protected.  “You can’t be a cartoonist and never offend anybody”, Mr. Kichka stressed.

Mr. Plantu showed a cartoon, of the type he said was common in the Islamic world, showing Israelis replete with stereotyped Jewish features, as well as Nazi symbols.  He said that such depictions of the Holocaust crossed the line, because they aggravated a deep sensitivity of Jews, akin to the kind of blasphemy Muslims felt about insults to Mohammed.

That should not stop anyone from drawing strong cartoons about Israel or any other parties in the Middle East, as he himself had done, he said, but they must be done with respect for cultures.

He also stressed that political cartoons had a great potential to encourage peace and understanding, recounting an instance in which he elicited a drawing of the Israeli flag from Yassir Arafat, who otherwise wouldn’t recognize the Jewish State.

In an example recounted by Mr. Kichka, Mr. Boukhari was able to convey to an Israeli audience the way the world looked from the Palestinian side, in a way that they were able to appreciate.

A journalist asked why the United Nations could not hold a contest for cartoons that foster peace, in response to the Iranian-sponsored contest for cartoons that made light of the Holocaust and other events of that nature.

Mr. Tharoor replied that the United Nations did indeed sponsor the Ranan Lurie Prize for outstanding political cartoons that reflected the spirit and principles of the Organization, though it was an award for published cartoonists and not a general contest.

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For information media • not an official record