nathan cushing

futurejournalismproject:

Wanted

In an interview with Cartoon Movement, Robert Russell, director of Cartoonists Rights Network International, a nonprofit that advocates for the rights of cartoonists around the world, discusses the history of the organization and why laughter is so threatening to authoritarian regimes:

[B]ack then most human rights organizations didn’t even know what box to put editorial cartoonists in.  Are they artists, or, are they journalists?  As a result, these cartoon journalists frequently slipped through the cracks, especially since many of them were working as freelancers…  

…While we remain the only organization exclusively dedicated to the human rights and free speech rights of editorial cartoonists, we have seen a welcome increase in civil society organizations that have become aware of the importance of editorial cartoonists and the threats to these cartoon journalists.  Many of these organizations like Reporters Without Borders, Article 19, Freedom House, and others have even opened up editorial cartoon pages on their websites where they keep their readers aware of the censoring of editorial cartoons throughout the world…

…Very often when journalists escape a deadly future in their own country, they find themselves as refugees in a strange land.  The trauma of this experience can easily become too much for them. The common image is that of the journalist who finds himself in a new country suddenly having to drive a taxi to put bread on the table.  We are proud to be able to help cartoonists transition through this incredibly traumatic experience and come out the other end as productive as they were when the problems began.  Each survivor becomes an incredible asset in his or her new country.

Cartoon Movement, The Impact of Laughter.