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Cartoonists talk shop at UN
17/10/2006 12:03 - (SA)
New York - Political cartoonists met at the United Nations on Monday to discuss their responsibilities and the pressures they face which were highlighted by the Muslim outrage over a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper.
More than 15 cartoonists from Denmark, the Middle East, US, Africa and other countries, drew a fine line between freedom of expression and respecting religious beliefs during a daylong programme on their changing profession entitled 'Cartooning for Peace: The responsibility of political cartoonists?'
Some of the cartoonists will continue the debate at programmes in Geneva and Brussels.
Big responsibility
Cartoons "can encourage us to look critically at ourselves, and increase our empathy for the sufferings and frustration of others," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in opening remarks to the UN seminar.
"But they can also do the opposite. They have, in short, a big responsibility."
During the seminar, the cartoonists exhibited their work and discussed the power of the medium that incorporates humour, irony and politics - and can sometimes result in a volatile mix.
Many of the cartoonists said their work must not be created primarily to incite tensions that could result in violence, while others acknowledged they cannot always determine when they will cross the line.
'We have a job to be more sensitive'
But they all agreed they must pay attention to the present political climate of the world.
"We have a job to be more sensitive," said Jean Plantu, a leading political cartoonist for the French newspaper Le Monde and the main organiser of the event.
"It is a new challenge for us," he told reporters at a press conference during a break in the day-long session.
Drawings depicting the Prophet Muhammad were first published in September 2005 in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten and reprinted four months later in a range of Western media, triggering massive protests across the Islamic world from Morocco to Indonesia.
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