Panel Examines Censorship in Arab World

Arab caricaturists assess censorship in the Arab world

A panel discussion entitled “Censorship on Caricature in the Arab World” was held on March 18 at West Hall’s Bathish Auditorium. The panel consisted of various caricaturists from the across the Arab world, including caricaturists Saqr Abu Fakhr from the Institute of Palestine Studies in Beirut, Bahraini Khaled al-Hasehmi, Egyptian Yacoub Sannour,  Iraqi Abdalrahim Yasir, Syrian Saad Hajo, working for the Lebanese newspaper As-Safir; Syrian Yusuf Abdalki, Egyptian Amro Salim, and Elias Khoury, a novelist and editor of An-Nahar’s cultural supplement. The panel discussion was organized by the Anis Makdisi Program in Literature with the Samir Kassir Institute (SKeyes).

The panel stressed that censorship is a problem throughout the Arab world, noting that the Arab world has somehow become devoid of humor in the media. All that has remained are depressing issues, making the Arab world bleak. The panelists, whose work had been banned in their home countries, displayed some of their images and urged the need to fight freedom-stifling censorship.

Hashemi spoke of sectarian-motivated challenges in Bahrain, saying his work had come under scrutiny during the 2005 Iranian elections, when his work was criticized not only by the government, but by the people as well. Sannour, meanwhile, observed that caricaturists need to have certain qualifications to meet their readers’ expectations and approval. He noted that readers were critical of his caricatures of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, which he interpreted as a form of censorship by the people. For his part, Yasir explained that for as long as he could remember, Iraq had always suffered from censorship under the regime of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. According to him, caricatures should not only serve humorous purposes, but they should serve to present society’s paradoxes. Hajo observed that the people can play a positive role in monitoring the media. He explained that in the past, when a local Lebanese television channel had been broadcasting 24 hours a day, it had neglected to play the national anthem as had been the habit for local channels. He wrote a letter to the station to highlight this issue and soon after, the channel started playing the national anthem. The panelists stressed that caricatures should not stand as obstacles in society, but they should be subject to criticism because criticism serves development.