Sorbonne Artgallery

As part of the second edition of the Cartooning Global Forum 2019, in Paris, the Steering Committee of EGDP/CGF, with the cooperation of CRNI, presents a selection of works from the two most recent laureates of CRNI’s Courage in Cartooning Award. Cartoonists Rights Network International (CRNI) is a NGO headquartered in the USA concerned with threats to the freedom of expression of cartoonists and caricaturists who must contend with extremism, authoritarianism and the vulnerabilities that arise from new working methods. Earlier this year Index on Censorship recognised CRNI’s two decades of campaigning work with a Freedom of Expression Fellowship Award.

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Nicaraguan cartoonist Pedro X Molina spoke out frequently against the Daniel Ortega regime, especially during the crackdown on civil liberties that ensued after widespread protests swept the country in 2018 & 2019. His cartoons focused on the corruption he perceived in the highest level of Nicaragua's government, the outside world's indifference to the crisis and the hundred of men, women and children injured and killed during the unrest. Molina himself was tailed by paramilitaries and his place of work raided by police. Molina defines cartooning as "an instrument of denunciation, analysis, criticisme, emotional connection and democratic liberation.” Thanks to the ICORN network of refuge cities Molina is now resident as a visiting international scholar at Itchaca College, New York. He received a Maria Moors Cabot Prize for journalism in 2019.

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Dissident Chinese visual artist Badiucao has resided in Australia for a decade, using a pen name and making public appearances while disguised. In November 2018 his first exhibition in Hong Kong was cancelled at the last moment when his family members in China were threatened by the police. In April 2019 a documentary was made in the period prior to the exhibition aired on Australian television. Badiucao filmed a short coda, removing his mask for the first time and thereby depriving the CCP of the leverage they assumed they could exploit to suppress his art. Since then Badiucao has been energised by the renewed protests for democracy in Hong Kong, producing daily cartoons inspired by and graphics for use in the movement. He reports suspicious activity indicating attempts have been made to hack his personal devices and that his movements are being monitored. He also believes his home has been invaded at least once.

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The Cartooning Global Forum is a proposition, during an annual meeting, to facilitate the meeting and exchange around the active role of cartooning in society. Multiple actors are then unveiled during a day of production of recommendations integrated into the SDG2030. These Sustainable Development Goals invite governments to invest in strong initiatives aimed at improving the lives of their inhabitants and their relationship to the planet, particularly with regard to the societal dimension. This annual working day follows the first reflections held in march 2017 at UNESCO during the panel “The issue of cartooning and its future”, supported by the Permanent Delegations of France and Switzerland to UNESCO and organized by the agency Si, as part of the exhibition event “The press in Liberty”.