The Crisis of Cartoon Publishing

This article illustrates the respond from the Muslim country after the published of the 12 caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad cartoon in the Danish newspaper. In the light of this, Professor Klausen, the author of The Cartoons that Shook the World claimed that certain cartoonist characters that published in the Danish newspaper was not intended to attack on Islam or the Prophet but rather used to attack on other newspaper. However, the cartoon has caused a huge protest by the Muslim country and resulted 450 people were killed and 800 were injured.

( The most potent cartoon drawn by Kurt Wetergaard as depicts the Prophet with a bomb in his turban)

Cartoons are frequently fascinating but somehow their value to historians lies in what they reveal. This means that cartoon actually does not explain the whole value of it because different people tend to have different interpretation which is mainly due to the different cultural background and past knowledge as suggested by Schriver (1997, p.365). In the light of this, the cartoonist should always take into consideration of the different regional culture before they publish any form of cartoon in the newspaper or magazine.

(Without dialog or subtitles, different cultural background audience tend to intrepre the meaning diffrently)

Free Speech or Hate Speech?

In relation to the Danish cartoon controversy some of the author claimed that “where is our right of freedom of speech and express our opinion?” (Jenkins 2009). This is because, after the Danish’s newspaper has published the Prophet Muhammad cartoon, the Danish flag was burned and certain newspapers were boycotted. In addition to that, editors, journalists and newspaper vendors have had their lives threatened. Similar case had happened to the cartoonist in the United Stated, Sean Delonas, who is being fired and boycotted by the nation after he published a political offensive cartoon to the United Stated President Obama (Brooklyn 2009). In relation to these two cases, it shows that trying to balance the scales between freedoms of expression on the one hand and respect for the feelings and beliefs of other people on the other hand is becoming an increasingly complex issue.

(The black monkey represent the United Stated First Black President Mr Obama)

In conclusion, the cartoonist should be able to draw a line in between the balance of the freedom of speech, political and religion as it has becoming an increasingly complex issue. On top of that, standardization of the publication rules and regulation worldwide will be able to minimize the conflict between countries.

Reference List

Brooklyn, R, 2009, ‘Nick Perry Says Post Cartoonist and Editor Should Be Fired. Columnist Mike Daly Says Paper Must Apologize’, viewed 15 June 2010, http://www.brooklynron.com/sean-delonas/>.

Jenkis, S, 2009, ‘The Cartoon War- Free Speech or Hate Speech’, viewed 15 June 2010, http://www.enelsyn.gr/papers/w12/Paper%20by%20Karmini%20Pillay(draft).pdf>.

Schriver, KA 1997, ‘Chapter 6: The interplay of words and pictures’, in Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub., New York, pp. 361-441.