Alberto from Spain’s Entre Comics kindly updates us on the ongoing fiasco of the state attempting to censor satirical magazine El Jeuves over a cartoon depicting members of the Spanish royal family. Following on from the legal letter from the judge they posted on their website in place of the offending cartoon (see this post the other day) El Jueves has now posted a new cartoon cover, which Alberto translates as saying “We Rectify! This is the actual cover we wanted to publish!” (thanks, Alberto).
I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, it is rarely a good idea for heavy handed authority figures to get into a public argument with cartoonists – not only do they end up drawing more attention to something they wanted to bury, not only do they end up being seen as censors stifling free speech, they also end up looking like a bunch of humourless and foolish idiots. Which, frankly, serves them damned well right in my book.
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August 7th, 2007 at 10:35 am
[...] The Olive Press, a fortnightly periodical based in Andalucia, considers the state censorship of the satirical El Jueves magazine for its recent cartoon depicting members of the Spanish royal family. It is interesting to get a Spanish perspective on this ongoing case – the Olive Press blog makes the point that the staff of El Jueves would have been well aware of what they were doing and the problems it might cause for them (although perhaps not that the story would go round the world as it has), but also agrees that special laws to protect privileged members of society from satirical attack, especially when they are public figures such as royals, is not healthy in a democratic society and that by being so heavy handed the judicial system has created more awareness of the cartoon rather than suppressing it. [...]