Bring Back The Birch

Drawing © Andrew Birch.  @marshallcartoon writes: Our esteemed membership secretary Andrew Birch has been exiled from Twitter after complaints from Tory Chair Greg Hands. Hands had posted a photo opportunity of himself eating a fish and chip supper. Andrew had replied that he ”hoped his supper didn’t go down well (or words to that effect, […]

Offensive Weapon?

Glenn Marshall writes: Procartoonists recently hosted a panel discussion labelled ‘OFFENSIVE WEAPON?’ at the North London Story Festival. The talk centred around the issue of cartoons causing offence and where to draw the line. I was joined by Carol Isaacs AKA The Surreal McCoy and The Guardian’s Martin Rowson. I opened with a brief look at […]

PCO’s Gagged at St-Just-Le-Martel 2019

The Surreal McCoy writes: Our exhibition had two outings this year: one at the high-profile Defend Media Conference in London during the summer and then again at the St-Just-Le-Martel Salon d’Humor in France over September/October. 58 cartoons by 25 members were displayed at the Centre Permanent’s exhibition space that saw many visitors over the two […]

Cartoonists Gagged again

Media crews filming the Gagged exhibition wall.  Our GAGGED exhibition on the suppression and censorship of cartoonists around the world had another outing last week. It was displayed at the international conference ‘Defend Media Freedom’ in London. The conference was instigated by the UK and Canadian governments. Media freedom is in decline worldwide. It was […]

Freedom of Expression Awards 2019

Congratulations to our friends at Cartoonists Rights Network International for winning the Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award for CAMPAIGNING. The impressive awards ceremony was held in London last Thursday evening and hosted by comedian Nish Kumar. Index on Censorship described CRNI as “a small organisation with a big impact: monitoring threats and abuses […]

Laughter as a Political Tool

The excellent and courageous Malaysian cartoonist Zunar (Zulkiflee Ulhaque) recently gave a talk entitled ‘Laughter as a Political Tool’ at the Institute of Advanced Studies, University College London. There was also an accompanying exhibition of his campaigning cartoon work. Zunar speaking at the event (pictures of him in handcuffs featured heavily as he’s frequently been arrested) […]

Gagged Ungagged Talk

Andy Davey writes: I was honoured to be asked by those nice people at Procartoonists to “host” an evening of interviews and talks to accompany the “Gagged” exhibition of cartoons at Westminster Reference Library on the subject of the oppression, censorship and gagging of political cartoonists around the world. My experience of hosting is limited to […]

The Round up

Kasia Kowalska writes: The Winter Solstice is behind us and the traditional festive fun is in full swing. Also high on the agenda is freedom of speech after the London School of Economics apologised to two students who had been banned from wearing T-shirts featuring cartoons of the prophet Mohammed and Jesus Christ. Twitter was […]