Amidst heavy topics such as Taiwan-China cross-strait relations and poverty in North Korea, “Innovations in Political Cartooning” seemed comparatively lighthearted. It was, in fact, a discussion of blatant infringements of free speech and the role of static images in the rapidly evolving electronic media.

“With newspapers dropping like flies, cartoonists are often the first ones gotten rid of as a money-saving tactic,” said moderator Robert Russell, executive director of Cartoonists Rights Network International. “Cartoonists have had to reinvent themselves to stay current, to keep their readership.”

Panelists included Next Media Animation development and content manager Michael Logan, Cape Town-based editorial cartoonist Jonathan “Zapiro” Shapiro and veteran editorial cartoonist Kevin “Kal” Kallaugher.

Shapiro presented some of his most controversial works, adding that he has twice faced million-US dollar law suits from South African president Jacob Zuma. One cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad, who is revered by Muslims, claiming that his followers have no sense of humor led to numerous death threats and what Shapiro described as a “terrifying week.”.

According to Kallaugher, the reactions of government and the people to satire can reveal the nature of a nation.”Nobody likes to be humiliated in public, and if you have the power to stop it, chances are you will pull the lever,” he said. “You can judge the maturity of a democracy by the amount of satire it can endure.”

The IPI spoke with two of the panelists: Robert Russell and Michael Logan.
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Robert Russell is the executive director of Cartoonists Rights Network International, a Washington, DC-based organization that aims to assert the right to free speech of political cartoonists.

IPI: Could you please briefly summarise the goals of the Cartoonists Rights Network?
RR: Our focus has always been to represent and advocate for cartoonists whose basic human rights and basic free speech rights have been taken away. Either they get arrested or they get beaten up [or] threatened; in some cases they’re taken to court and given jail time. Every country in the world has signed the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. Article 19 of the Declaration gives every human being on Earth the right to free expression. So when a government like Zimbabwe or any of these cruel tyrannies deprives its citizens of their free speech rights, it’s illegal. It’s legal according to their local law, but it’s not legal according to their agreement with the United Nations.

So that’s where organizations like Committee to Protect Journalists or Human Rights Watch or Cartoonists Rights Network, that’s where we get the mandate to do what we do. We remind these governments and these tyrannies that “what you’re doing to suppress your people is illegal”. And it’s usually a symbol of a failing regime.

IPI: But to relate back to one of the last points of the panel, do you think there’s a line where you say, “This cartoonist has really done something reprehensible”?
RR: In all of the human rights agencies, not only cartooning agencies but journalism organisations, we all agree that any kind of writing or any type of topography or cartoons that promote anything illegal, promotes hatred, promotes assassination, promotes racism, […] we choose not to support those cartoonists or authors. Usually, that’s pretty rare. But you know, especially with cartoons, it’s anybody’s opinion. We generally don’t support cartoonists who really are way over the edge.

IPI: Seeing as it’s all just opinion, why do you think more unstable, generally undemocratic governments are so vicious and rigorous about eradicating cartoonists and satirists?
RR: [Because these are] people who laugh at them. In some countries like Egypt, […] people are losing their rice bowls. Okay, we’ve done away with Mubarak. But there are a hundred people under him, who have been driving limousines [and who are] now all going to lose their jobs. What, do you think they like that? They’re going to fight tooth and nail to keep their jobs.

So I hope this conference asks the question of after the Arab Spring, are tweeting and Facebook — are we making these countries safer democracies? Or are we just making them safe for the next dictator?

IPI: And it’s always satire that gets to these people the most.
RR: They can’t fight it. Well, they can fight it like in Jonathan [Shapiro]’s case, he’s under indictment, under the threat of a huge fine that would ruin him. So yes, [cartoonists] suffer. It’s because these tyrants can’t stand to be laughed at. You can shoot at them, they’ll shoot back. You can try to overthrow them, they’ll put you down. But what do you do when the nation is laughing at you? How do you stop it? You stop it by stopping the cartoonist.

IPI: On the note of social media, do you believe that the only future for cartoons and satire is with animation and the Internet?
RR: Animation is the natural extension of a single cartoon. That’s what animation is: one cartoon and the next cartoon and the next cartoon. I don’t know […] anywhere in the world [where] you would find a more knowledgeable group of people speaking on this issue. This was really a historical moment in political cartooning.

IPI: So is there a future for journalism and cartoons in print?
RR: Yeah, there will always be the kid in the back of the classroom who’s drawing nasty pictures of the teacher. And he needs to live too. Magazines will always want static picture cartoons. There will always be a market for a single panel cartoonist. But you know, when they invented photography, they thought painting will go away. And [they think] now that we have animation, nobody will draw simple cartoons anymore. They’re all here. They’re all around. You just have to sort them out

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Michael Logan is the manager of content development of the Taipei-based Next Media Animation company, one of the largest animation studios in thr region. Next Media Animation produces animated satire on current news and affairs.

IPI: Could you briefly describe the structure of Next Media Company? How does it operate and around how many people are currently working there?
ML: Next Media, the group, is a Hong Kong-listed company. It has about 4,500 people, I’d say. In Hong Kong we have the Apple Daily newspaper and Next magazine. Here in Taiwan, we have the Apple Daily newspaper, Next magazine, and we also have the TV station. Next Media Animation was set up to service these other parts of the Next Media group. We apply animation to our sister media publications. We produce about two hours of finished animation per week. This animation gets distributed to the TV station we have here in Taiwan, the newspaper in Taiwan and in Hong Kong. We usually do six minutes a day [of animation] that gets distributed to the international audience.

IPI: When did Apple Daily and Next Media start producing these short animated clips?
ML: We started publishing these in, I believe, November of 2009, so we’re coming up on two years. There was an R&D phase that took place in the years preceding that.

IPI: Obviously, the Tiger Woods animation that Next Media Animation produced gained fame in both Taiwan and internationally (the video gained over six million views worldwide). What was that period like for Next Media Animation? Was it an overnight success?
ML: Well, there’s never any real “overnight success.” There was a lot of work that had to be done before we even got to the point of being able to animate. After the Tiger Woods video was published, that sort of accelerated our plans to do more stories for the international market. It’s never just a one-day success; you have to continually put animations out there and do good work every day. It’s very much cumulative.

IPI: Touching on something you referred to in your session, you briefly mentioned that a video produced by Next Media Animation had to be taken down. Why was that?
ML: I think you heard the other panelists talk about what some of the taboo subjects are. Jonathan [Shapiro] had done some cartoons that talked about and referred to Islam. For us, it was the same subject matter. [Some viewers] were very uncomfortable with the animation, which resulted in us taking that particular video down. We apologised for any offence that we caused, but that’s sort of the business. You’re telling a joke; it’s comedy, but sometimes you unintentionally offend someone.

IPI: Some people may find the animations produced by Next Media Animations as crude or offensive. How do you deal with these critics?
ML: If we’re doing an animation about Barack Obama, for example, and he finds our animation crude or offensive, that’s not something that we would ever apologise for. There’s a saying in journalism that you afflict the comfortable, and you comfort the afflicted. That’s what we aim to do with our satire. If you get that wrong, then you might be in a spot of trouble, but every day that’s what we try to do.

Next Media Animation has teamed up with Spike TV (an American television company) for a special regarding the recent scandal with Charlie Sheen. Are there any plans in the near future for collaborations with any other companies or television stations?
We always have discussions on signing with various entertainment groups. When we signed with Spike TV, it was for a five-year development deal. In terms of what we have coming up, it’s not something that we just talk about. We talk about once we have a product that’s going to air. All I can say is, be on the lookout for what we might do next.