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08/15/2010

Humor as a weapon in defense of freedom

Me004780

This weekend's Madam & Eve is one of a series of strips standing up against a proposed change in the law that would restrict press freedom in that young democracy. The occasional thuggery and corruption of the government has provided cartoonists with some good material in recent years. However, the response to their jibes, and to the honest reporting on the part of the rest of the press, has not been reform but (proposed) repression.

This move to end press freedom -- a human right and basic tool of democracy which is enshrined in the nation's constitution -- has gone well beyond comic-opera foolishness and poses a true threat to what has been one of the continent's post-colonial success stories.

Madam & Eve are not the only ones taking on this proposed change. South African cartoonists are standing united in their opposition, as this statement suggests.

AfricartoonistPetitionSmall

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