As it does every year, Cartooning for Peace is taking an active part in the 12th World Forum for Democracy, whose theme is “Democracy and diversity: can we overcome the divisions?”.
As the Forum points out, “in a year when half the world’s population has been or will be called to the polls, the 2024 edition of the World Forum for Democracy will address the major threats posed by misinformation and divisive political narratives around diversity, including in the context of election campaigns. The Forum will examine how electoral processes can unwittingly crystallise societal divisions and provide fertile ground for populism to flourish. Given the urgency of this challenge, the forum will consider ways of raising citizens’ awareness of the risks posed by populism to their fundamental rights and freedoms.”
Press cartoons: an antidote to populism and a medicine for democracy
The brutalisation of political life, the impoverishment of public debate, the instrumentalisation and radicalisation of opinions, the increase in disinformation, the rise of populism, the danger of authoritarianism… These are just some of the ills that threaten our ‘democratic fatigue’. And yet there are remedies available before the disease is complete: aren’t art and humour formidable weapons against the autocrats of all stripes who impose censorship? How can press cartoons help to defend the fundamental rights and freedoms that make up democracy? How can we caricature our society when reality itself becomes a caricature?
With :
Moderator: Jean-Paul Marthoz, editorial co-ordinator of the Annual assessment of press freedom in Europe by the partner organisations of the Safety of Journalists Platform
With the support of the City of Strasbourg, Cartooning for Peace is presenting the exhibition “Press cartoons: A State of Affairs”.
This series of cartoons offers an insight into the work of press cartoonists, pacifist critics of our societies’ malaise, who are regularly the target of attacks around the world. And yet, through the beneficial medium of laughter, they are the courageous guarantors of press freedom, helping to preserve the health of our democracies when it is threatened.
Accustomed to walking the narrow ridge between freedom and responsibility, cartoonists ‘are tightrope walkers trying to stay upright on a tight rope’, as the writer Régis Debray so aptly put it.
How can we resist and fight for the freedom of the press when it is still so often under attack? These tightrope walkers, true foot soldiers of our democracies and our freedoms, show us the way: with the peaceful weapons of the pencil, creativity, free thought… and laughter!
This exhibition is a tribute to them and a reminder of our shared commitment to defending the fundamental principle of freedom of expression.
Inauguration of the exhibition on 7 November at 3:30pm, in the presence of the Mayor, Ms.Jeanne Barseghian, and three international press cartoonists Zehra Ömeroğlu (Türkiye), Tjeerd Royaards (Netherlands) and Emanuele del Rosso (Italy).
The exhibition is part of the City of Strasbourg’s programme for the World Forum for Democracy. Find out more about the City of Strasbourg’s programme.
