SECOND INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION OF SATIRICAL CARTOONS - LIBEX 2020
From the Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Free Expression - Giuseppe Di Vagno Foundation,
For the promotion of freedom of expression and political satire
Conversano (BA) - Italy
Title of the competition :
"Freedom of expression and political satire in danger".
Title of the exhibition and catalogue :
"DOWN WITH SATIRE!"
The exhibition and catalogue present the 55 drawings of the semi-finalists of the competition.
- The 66-page four-colour paper catalogue, with an introduction by Thierry Vissol, director of Librexpression and president of the competition jury, will be made available to visitors of the exhibition.
- The exhibition will take place at the Castle-Museum of Conversano (BA-Puglie) from 25 September to 6 December 2020. It will be inaugurated on 26 September, in the presence of the authorities of the Foundation, the city and the region and part of the competition jury, as part of the 16th edition of the Lector In Fabula festival of the Giuseppe Di Vagno Foundation (1886-1921).
The choice of the cartoonists invited to participate in the competition
This year we are celebrating the 70th anniversary of the signing of the European Convention on Human Rights in Rome (4 November 1950) by the representatives of the Member States of the newly created European organisation: the Council of Europe. Article 10 of the Convention elaborates on Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (proclaimed on 10 December 1948 by the United Nations General Assembly). Both guarantee freedom of opinion and expression in the signatory countries. However, these freedoms are far from being respected, not only in non-European countries, but also in many of the 47 Member States of the Council of Europe, despite the existence and numerous judgments on the subject by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which was set up precisely to enforce them when they are under threat. The Covid-19 crisis, with exceptional legislation passed or decided without consulting parliaments in some countries, has worsened the situation with regard to freedom of press, freedom of expression and political satire, with almost general indifference on the part of public opinion.
The drastic reduction in the readership of the print media, economic, religious, gender, etc. pressure groups, violent attacks, insults and threats on the net, political correctness, competition from online media which often do not respect journalistic ethics and do not (or very badly) pay their collaborators, the dissemination of false news to a credible public, all these elements lead to professional and financial precariousness of journalists and editorial cartoonists. They lead to a regression in the professionalism of these jobs, which are indispensable to the smooth functioning of democracies. Many international associations have sounded the alarm, including Cartooning for Peace, created by Plantu and former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and the multilingual information site www.voxeurop.eu .
Today, the Euro-Mediterranean Centre LIBREXPRESSION/Libex of the Giuseppe di Vagno Foundation (1886-1921) has as its main objective the defence of freedom of expression, of t press, opinion and political satire. It works in cooperation with many other associations of satirical cartoonists and journalists. Thus, it was decided to devote the second Libex competition to this theme, foundation of any democratic life (the first edition dedicated to the « digital era » was held in 2018).
Wishing to involve the main protagonists, namely the editorial cartoonists, Librexpression has chosen to organise the competition with a selection of cartoonists who publish their cartoons mainly in the written press, in each of the 47 Member States of the Council of Europe, signatories of the European Convention, to draw the attention of the European public to the reality and danger of the situation we live in .
A competition "open" to all cartoonists, professional or otherwise, as our experience shows, would not have allowed such a precise choice, nor would it have met our requirements and objectives.
The competition was organised in collaboration with Cartooning for Peace and VoxEurop.
The jury of the competition
The international jury, chosen with great care, was composed of :
- 6 editorial cartoonists of international reputation :
Rayma (Venezuela); Kal (United States); KAK (France - president of Cartooning for Peace); Cristina Sampaio (Portugal); Michel Kichka (Israel) and Khalid Gueddar (Morocco) ;
- and 2 journalists : Catherine André (France - co-founder and managing editor of Voxeurop) and Carlo Gubitosa (Italy).
- It was chaired by Thierry Vissol, director of Librexpression.
Origin of the invited caroonists
Libex has selected and personally invited 160 cartoonists from 44 of the 47 member countries of the Council of Europe, having found none in Monaco, San Marino and Liechtenstein. Among them: 17 Italians, 11 French, 10 Germans, 8 British, 6 Russians, 6 Turks, 7 Ukrainians. In the other countries, there were between 1 and 5 cartoonists.
Origin of the cartoonists who responded to the invitation
126 cartoonists from 41 countries responded to the invitation, sending 287 cartoons. No replies were received from Armenia, Estonia and Iceland. Almost all Italians, Germans, Russians, Turks, Ukrainians replied, but only half of the French.
Origin of the 55 semi-finalists
The semi-finalists cartoonists chosen by the jury come from 25 countries, including 16 members of the European Union and 9 other Member States of the Council of Europe: Albania, Azerbaijan, Russian Federation, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine. The most numerous are: Spaniards and Italians (5), Dutch, Germans and Turks (4) and French (3).
Exhibition and catalogue
- The 55 selected drawings will be exhibited in the Castle-Museum of Conversano from the 25th of September, the opening date of the Lector in Fabula Festival on the 6th of December.
- The 10 best drawings will be reproduced as postcards.
- A colour catalogue, reproducing the 55 drawings, with a long introduction/presentation of the competition theme, illustrated by the drawings of the artists members of the international jury of the competition (France, Israel, Morocco, United States, Venezuela), will be made available to the public.
Media partners :
- www.voxeurop.eu
- www.buduar.it
- www.diagonales.it
- https://fany-blog.blogspot.com
- The Italian monthly magazine: CONFRONTI
Le journal de Libex, n°3 September 2020
On the occasion of the 16th edition of the Lector In Fabula festival, Librexpression publishes the 3rd issue of the "Libex Journal" (in Italian).
This third opus, of 24 colour pages, is devoted to freedom of expression, with articles on history, geopolitics and sociology, on issues related to freedom of expression in the context of the Covid-19 health crisis.
It contains contributions from authors of different nationalities: Danish, French, Italian, Israeli, Spanish, American, Swiss, as well as articles illustrated with satirical drawings by artists from these and other countries: Afghanistan, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Venezuela. Finally, some articles are enriched with historical satirical drawings from Spain, the Czech Republic, Italy and France.
The contributors to this issue are :
Gianpaolo Accardo, Dino Aloi, Carlos Amorim, Shahid Atiqullah, Pierre Ballouhey, Joep Bertrams, Niels Bo Bojesen, Virginia Cabras (Alagoon), Mario Caligiuri, Mario Campli, Enrico Campo, Jaume Capdevilla (KAP), Lido Contemori, Côté, Marco de Angelis, Ismail Dogan, Khalid Gueddar, Carlo Gubitosa, Ilaria Guidantoni, KAP, Kevin Kallaugher (KAL), Kianoush Ramezani (KIANOUSH), Michel Kichka, Milenko Kosanovic, Izabella Kowalska-Wieczorek, Patrick Lamassoure (KAK), Vincent l'Epée, Fabio Magnasciutti, Cesare Merlini, Marilena Nardi, Pitch, Sylvain Platevoet, Petar Pismetrovic, Ramses Morales Izquierdo (RAMSES), Tjeerd Royaards, Cristina Sampaio, Agim Sulaj, Rayma Suprani (Rayma), Lucas Thiago, Gianfranco Uber (UBER), Angelo Ventrone, Thierry Vissol.
