A la Une

25-02-2010 -
Press cartoons: illustrating injustice

Works by cartoonists from the Cartooning for Peace association displayed at the World Congress Against the Death Penalty highlight the need for abolition with the stroke of a pencil.

“I’m in favour of the death penalty, but when I’m asked to draw against it, I do it.” This is how Japanese press artist Norio Yamanoi introduces his drawing of a hung guillotine. Norio Yamanoi shares the fact that 80% of the population is in favour of the death penalty. “The death penalty is not a subject of debate in Japan,” he adds.

This fact is soon to be repeated by Jeff Danzinger: “In the United States the media is more interested in covering abortion, which is a story that will run for at least another five years and, especially in Europe, unemployment. He reminds us that the United States is made up of 50 states, and that in 14 of them it is abolished, including where he lives in Vermont.

Damien Glez, who draws in the Burkinan media, reinforces the position: “The death penalty in public opinion is not a subject of debate; Africans live in a very violent political contract, particularly on the military side. Talking about the position of the death penalty in the penal code is rather abstract, and slightly ridiculous. Public opinion considers it to be an intellectual debate (…). If you’ve an empty stomach, you don’t think beyond that...”.

Watch the interview with Damien Glez:


For the press artists at the World Congress Against the Death Penalty, drawing plays a major role in the understanding of current affaires, especially in Africa where the majority of the population is illiterate. This visual thread unites, educates and wakes the viewer up through laughter or irreverence.

The fight against the death penalty has a lot to gain using this medium though the drawings must of course be published to have an effect and this is all too rare an event in retentionist countries.