Drawing pressure: Cartoons from around the world

The attacks on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in January threw a global spotlight on the challenges faced by cartoonists worldwide. Index has since its earliest days reported on the persecution of satirists. As part of our work in celebrating as well as defending free expression, Index has this year asked cartoonists to reflect on the past year for free expression in their own way.

South America

Xavier Bonilla (Bonil) bonil self portrait

Xavier Bonilla (Bonil)

Ecuador

Bonil has been criticising Ecuador’s political leaders in his cartoons for 30 years. Regularly denounced, threatened and fined, Bonil has earned the title “the pursued cartoonist”. @bonilcaricatura


North America

Kevin Kallaugher (Kal)

kal self portrait

Kevin Kallaugher (Kal)

United States

US artist Kal spent 10 years drawing cartoons in London before returning home, where he continues to work. He has won numerous awards and his cartoons have been featured in more than 100 publications around the globe. @kaltoons | web


Signe Wilkinson (Signe) signe self portrait 1

Signe Wilkinson (Signe)

United States

In 1992, Signe became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning, and she has since won several other awards for her work. She comments on topical political issues and is best known for her daily cartoons in The Philadelphia Daily News. @SigneWilk | Facebook


Europe

Jean Plantureux (Plantu) 1516_file_b_PORTRAIT_PLANTU

Jean Plantureux (Plantu)

France

Plantu, the chief cartoonist for France’s Le Monde, is co-founder of Cartooning for Peace. Since the Charlie Hebdo attacks, Plantu has had a constant security detail but says he intends to continue to draw. @plantu | web


Martin Rowson

martin_rowson_self_portrait

Martin Rowson

United Kingdom

Political satirist Martin Rowson contributes cartoons to The Guardian and the Daily Mirror as well as Index on Censorship magazine. His work has earned him several awards, as well as an official appointment as Cartoonist Laureate of London in 2001. @MartinRowson


Middle East

Ali Farzat

ferzat self portrait

Ali Farzat

Syria

Former Index arts award winner Ali Farzat came to global attention in 2011, when he was pulled from his car and beaten by Syrian security forces who broke both his hands. Farzat recently worked for Kuwaiti Newspaper Al-Watan, which has been closed by authorities after criticising the government.


Doaa El Adl

doaa self portrait

Doaa El Adl

Egypt

Doaa El Adl has been an award-winning cartoonist for prominent Egyptian newspaper Al Masry Al Youm since 2008. She has faced threats and charges of blasphemy for her illustrations. @doaaeladl


Asia

Zulkiflee Anwar Haque (Zunar)

zunar malaysian cartoonist

Zulkiflee Anwar Haque (Zunar)

Malaysia

“Why pinch when you can punch?!” says Zunar, believing the best way to make a political impact is to criticise his country’s powerful leaders as harshly as possible. The Malaysian government has banned much of Zunar’s work and repeatedly subjected him to raids, arrest and detainment. Zunar continues undeterred, despite two arrests in 2015 already. @zunarkartunis | web


Australia

David Rowe

DAVID-ROWE

David Rowe

Australia

Award-winning cartoonist David Rowe has worked as an editorial artist for the Australian Financial Review for 22 years. Rowe’s bright and colorful watercolors are famously merciless. He is a three-time winner of the Stanley Award for Australia’s Cartoonist of the Year. @roweafr


Africa

Damien Glez (Glez)

GLEZ1

Damien Glez (Glez)

Burkina Faso

Glez’s cartoons regularly appear in publications spanning three continents, including Le Journal du Jeudi, for which he is the delegated director of publication, and the satirical Le Marabout, which he co-created. He writes his own comic strip called Divine Comedy. @DamienGlez | web