Miking Change
Miking Change
Episode 7: How Political Cartoons Can Be Barometers For Democracy - Part 2
This second half of Miking Change's conversation with Terry Anderson, the executive director of Cartoonists Rights Network International. CRNI is a human rights non-profit specifically for cartoonists whose work has lead to a threat on their life or liberty. In part two, Terry dives into their mission and shares stories of brave cartoonists all around the world risking life and liberty to practice their craft.
For me, we're a human rights organization first and cartoonists, a our constituency. So that means it's a cartoonist whose human rights have come under threat because of the work that they produce. As I said, that might mean that they're being criminalized, it might mean that they're being threatened with violence, a they could be displaced from their home, and they could be judicially harassed or harassed by the police or the military, or they could be subjected to some kind of a more insidious campaign of harassment.
Jesse:Hi changemaker, my name is Jesse Colman, and you're listening to Miking Change, a podcast that puts a microphone to the stories that matter. Today, we're jumping into the second half of my conversation with Terry Anderson, Executive Director of cartoonists Rights Network International. I encourage everyone to check out last week's episode before this one because Terry breaks down why political cartoons are critical part of a democracy's public discourse. In this episode, we'll hear about some of the cartoonists that cartoonist Rights Network international works with wielding nothing but are these brave people risk life and liberty for the privilege to speak truth to power? If you're like me, you'll never look at a political cartoon the same way after, let's jump into ethics. But let's talk about the limits of political cartoons like racial or ethnic caricatures. And also, let's dive into Charlie Hebdo at the same time, because I think there's
Terry Anderson:Yeah, of course. So the the meeting I mentioned earlier in the meeting that kind of brought me into this organization was convened in 2015. And that was the year of the attack. A the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Were a Mormon tax that Yeah, absolutely, aim. So it was probably the largest story that's ever occurred in in terms of cartoonists, and the worst that can happen to them. Charlie Hebdo as esoterical, a paper published in Paris, a It's not exclusively cartoon, but it makes heavy, heavy use of cartoons. In any given edition, it's probably about 60 to 70%, perhaps cartoon material. And they were one of the European papers that had themselves chosen to replan a number of cartoons that were published 10 years previously, and a Danish newspaper, yealands porcelain, and they were a collection of cartoons by a dozen or so a Danish cartoonist themselves responding to an attack that happened in in Denmark involving a Islamic extremists. And these cartoons were disseminated through the Muslim world. In some cases, they were distorted. And they were reproduced alongside other cartoons that were not in the original set of 12. But the narrative that was propagated was that in, in portraying the profit in a demeaning and insulting terms, that all Muslims were being diminished. There were riots. Consequently, there were deaths, there was a lot of violence. And the the ensuing debate was, what do we do about cartoons like this? But also how do we even talk about them? Do we look at them, or do we not look at them? And, and Charlie Hebdo was, were one of the publications that the cd into the unintelligent debate couldn't occur unless you were actually looking at what was being debated and discussed. And they also wanted to express solidarity with the cartoonist in Denmark because by that time, their threads had been issued against them. And in actual fact, one of them was attacked in his home and led the rest of his life he died a couple of years ago Be Loved the days of his life under under police protection. So that put that put Charlie Hebdo intern in the frame of jihadists and over the decade that followed the return to the topic. Obviously, Islam in France is colored by their history of colonialism, and they are a former colonies in in Africa in the Middle East. Their offices were fired bond at one point. And then in the second week of 2015, a two gunman came to their office killed five cartoonists, and a number of other staff. There were more killings elsewhere in the city early on that day. I think I'm racing 13 people perished in total. But the five cartoonists that died in the office, sort of became for a moment emblematic martyrs for freedom of expression. People came out onto the streets of Paris, in numbers that had not been seen since the end of the Second World War. Multiple leaders, world leaders marched arm in arm with each other and can have a funeral procession and a way that it has to be said, the cartoonists that died with a friend completely absurd. They would have laughed at such a display, a most of the people that turned up to mourn them, or people that the cartoonists reserve the right to be completely dismissive of. But it it kind of solidified Charlie Hebdo for good or bad as the Naples Ultra the absolute apex of freedom of expression in, in a classical liberal, European democracy. And also guaranteed Charlie Hebdo was existence because up until that point, it was a magazine, which is safe to say, had had mixed fortunes, it was never particularly popular, it was never the biggest sailing magazine in France, by any stretch of the imagination, it had disappeared, at least once it's in its publication history. But then millions, millions and millions of euros flooded then. And even though they had to move, and still to this day work in a secret and highly secure location. And the magazine will essentially, I think, anyway, exist for at least another generation or two. And the debate about whether or not cartoons that portray the profit continues, then are those that say that good satire, ethical satire, a punches up, in other words, targets, the powerful and the privileged and never punches down, and other words does not target the disenfranchised, or the minority. Muslim people are a minority within France in and they suffer racial violence and discrimination. And that to go out of one's way to aggrieved their sensibilities as a kind of aggravated racial harassment. There are others that say that religion is power, religion exerts power over its over its adherents, therefore, organized religion of any description is a legitimate target for satire. And Islam is not an exception. Add to that the fact that a in the decade that we're talking about a for sure, Islamic extremism was a problem across Europe, terrorist attacks were a problem across Europe. That that was what the Charlie Hebdo cartoonist in particular objected to was the idea that any games could be given to terrorism. And right up to the past year, it continues to be a running wound. Our teacher was more dot Samuel potty. Because in his class, he was having a discussion about the events of 2015. And afterwards, and wanted to have on a fairly informed discussion and therefore, look at the cartoons. Gave fair warning gave anybody that wanted to leave, particularly his Muslim students the opportunity to do so. And then the end was actually killed by a relative of someone who was not even in his class. It was simply the fact that the cartoons were ever looked at, and the context of a classroom that motivated the murder. And saw the problem for me, as I think to put the Charlie Hebdo cartoons away and evolve and never discussed My game gives them far too much power. And if we're ever going to get over less efforts to be is ever going to be successfully resolved, then we have to clear handedly examine the material that we're talking about. We can't deny further generations the opportunity to know what happened, why it happened, and what was at stake. I think that to suggest that there's, there's, they're so offensive that you can't even look at them under any circumstances, is wrong. And it seems glib. But I would also say that the most violently Islamophobic or anti semitic or anti trans or any other prejudice, you care to name, cartoon doesn't justify callings that as soon as someone has been killed, we're kind of we're suddenly forced to move beyond a nice to be about whether or not a offense is the same as a incitement and so on the things that human rights lawyers and feed the expressions lawyers a engage with, as soon as somebody has been killed, then the killing has become the thing that we're talking about. Inevitably, so we can't, we can't accept. And I don't think anybody that argues in good faith accepts that the murders were in any way. A justifiable even if, as again, as the case. Many people would say okay, but you know, occurred within the context of on ongoing violence in the Middle East and isn't blameless people die in theatres of war. A over there often with with a comment, and a lot of Western circles. But five cartoonists die, and all of a sudden, we're all supposed to be upset about it. And that is kind of an imbalance there. And that's, that's true. But a like I said, I think I think the best way to describe it as an a wound that continues to be open, a running a running open wound still, particularly in France. It's very difficult still in France, for cartoonists to gather. It's very difficult for them to do that, at least not without security, not without knowing that, you know, the they have added protection. And it's upsetting for me because freedom of expression as as we were saying earlier on, it's it's fundamental as a fundamental right, I believe. But I really dislike the way in which in recent years, freedom of expression to a lot of people that hear the phrase has come to mean, being an asshole. Yeah, to be blunt. Right? My freedom of expression as my right to be an unrelenting asshole all the time. That's my freedom of expression is how it's often interpreted freedom of speech and particular freedom of speech is has almost become a dog whistle. No, I think so Why would suggest as that we need to we need to have we need to continue the conversation. I think it's it's demonstrably true. If you look at cartoons from 100 years ago, 50 years ago, 25 years ago what we find acceptable changes stuck on a sitcom from the 90s and it's often quite sure
Jesse:can't watch friends anymore. Yeah.
Terry Anderson:So, no, we we do it sound, again sounds very glib and very easy to see. But I honestly do think that we do move on. And we move on with the gentle hand of, of conversation and debate between friends. That's how we move on. That's how we come to determinations about what we're going to accept or nor any more, what's truly unacceptable, beyond the limits of free expression or not any more. And that is, and that is immutable. And it changes. And I think, again, cliched, but in over the long distance, it bends towards justice. I think it does. And that's not to say that you you shouldn't vociferously opposed the things that you find offensive, that's freedom of expression as well, or possession as freedom of expression. And that's where I think, again, the debate has become really muddled. A lately, as we are people see, people seem to think that what that the that they aren't entitled to a life without being contradicted. And that when they are contradicted they are being injured, diminished, abused, silenced. It's like, well, no, it would seem to me to be self evident that if everyone has freedom of speech, that means everybody has freedom to express views that are not yours. And even to go farther and say, I think you're wrong. And I oppose what you're saying. That is what the cartoonists most of the time are doing. And often the blunt is possible terms, they are not just contradicting or opposing, they are ridiculing politicians of the day, social mores a whatever, whatever the topic at hand is, so the the have to have the space and the freedom and the latitude to say I think such and such is bullshit. Um, without being and the worst case scenario, a killed because of we have to lesson we have to we have to lesson with grace, I think when we are told that our biases are showing or because the fact of the matter is, particularly in the Anglophone and Francophone world, the political cartoonists for the most part, are pale male and stealing. It's not to say that women cartoonists don't exist, because they absolutely do. It's not to say that black and ethnic minority cartoonists don't exist, because they definitely do. And, and it's not to say that young cartoonists don't exist, because they absolutely do. But a again, in the conversation that I was having with colleagues last week, we were talking about this phenomenon that I've certainly noticed, which is I think that a the young don't engage with what we would call a political or editorial cartoon, because it's establishment. And its party political. And that bores them, that the party political system has failed them for the most part. And the mainstream media, I think, they they feel has failed them for the most part. So a politically engaged young cartoonists these days, I think, would be far more likely to gravitate towards doing something long form a graphic novel, or, or web comics or things like that, a street art things that have more in common with a with activism. A, a more generally than something that feels like I said Cana kind of old kind of tired a kind of like your dad's a preferred form of media, which is the the political editorial, cartoon. So I have to say we don't make that we don't make those kind of hard. A distinctions, the cartoonists that we advocate on behalf of or, or or get into that. Some of them do. Yes, some of them. Some of them do that kind of work. They're more like activists. They're more like a, you know, graphic novelist record or comic strip artist or what have it's not necessarily somebody doing a little box that appears on the the opinion page of the morning people.
Jesse:Yeah. Let's get into the cartoonists Rights Network internationals mission in the cartoonists that you work with.
Terry Anderson:So our mission is human rights based in the first instance. And then after that, we're talking about cartoonists. So I, for me, we're a human rights organization first and cartoonists, a our constituency. So that means it's a cartoonist whose human rights have come under threat because of the work that they produce. As I said, that might mean that they're being criminalized, it might mean that they're being threatened with violence, a they could be displaced from their home. And they could be judicially harassed or harassed by the police or the military. Or they could be subjected to some kind of a more insidious campaign of harassment. And we intervene in a number of different ways, campaigning, advocating on their behalf some things engaging with government, or supernatural, supranational organizations, a UN Special Rapporteur tours and people like that, who can help a lobby governments material intervention, if somebody is really in dire straits, and perhaps they need to get out of a situation in a hurry, we'll try to help them achieve that. And we do try to maintain long relationships, because there's not that many cartoonists in the world. So although I would say, although we're, we're plenty busy, the last couple of years have been hard on not a sugar coated. Um, but unlike a lot of the big, you know, the really big human rights NGOs, our client base doesn't run, you know, into, into four or five figures in any given year. And so we can we can kind of afford if you like, or, or have the capacity in two, two, as much as we can stay involved a with a carton his life. And the longer term, check in with them, see how they're doing, see if there's anything else that they need. And because ideally, you don't just want to save the person, you also want to save the career. You want, you want to see them safe, but you also want to see them continue to do the thing that they were doing before, if at all possible. So, again, we could go on, I'll give you a couple of examples. What are some stories you have of the moment? So probably the biggest one a facing us right now as Ahmed Kibriya Kishore, he's in Bangladesh. I mentioned earlier about our fears of what would happen under the pandemic. And he suffered exactly the kind of situation we were worried about. So, April, April through May of 2020. He was producing a series of cartoons again on Facebook. And they were critical of the government's handling of of the pandemic. He was skeptical about. Things like how PPE would be distributed how vaccines were making would be distributed. And these cartoons ran for about six weeks, I think. And he was one of a number of people arrested. A because of their alleged involvement in one particular Facebook page where his cartoons were being duplicated. Kishore alleges that he was tortured immediately after his arrest. He has definitely been maimed. He has lost permanently lost healing in one year. There's evidence of other injuries that were sustained at that time that were not treated properly. He then went on to spend 10 months in prison. And again, during a pandemic, when all organizations were satisfied that being in jail, increase your exposure to potential infection. He's a diabetic, which puts him in a higher risk category. He wasn't getting insulin in sufficient amounts during that time. So his health continued to suffer because of that. A and I'll be honest, I think the only reason he's out he got a released on bail in March of this year is because his former Selmy a died died in custody. I still don't know exactly the circumstances of that are an invader a very swift investigation found no suspicious circumstances, but I would take that with a pinch of salt. So he was released on bail am and has remained in Bangladesh sense, obviously Bangladesh, in the intervening time has gone under lockdown, and so on. But he's under a case which falls under the digital security act in Bangladesh, which is a notoriously vague and overly a censorious and harsh instrument, which essentially can be used by the government to put anybody away for for any activity online. And it sometimes doesn't even have to necessarily be something you've written or photographed or posted yourself. Sometimes it can just be you you interacted with a post in some way you liked it or VTT, the robot or what have you been anybody with any kind of digital footprint and Bangladesh runs the risk of a censure under the digital a Security Act. So it's safe to say that Kishore has pretty much lost everything. Lacey's health is has been seriously affected is he's he's suffered, unimaginably has marriages ended, because of concerns about the extent to which his communications are monitored, he has very limited contact with anybody else in terms of his family or friends or what have you. Because of the lockdown. He spent a lot of the time that even though he's been out of jail, he has been in literal isolation because people haven't been seeing each other have been moving around social distancing and everything else. So it's been the best part of two years of absolute hell for him, and predicated upon precisely what we were talking about before, he just doesn't read his government particularly highly in and they was expressing, as his as his right. concerns and skepticism about how things were going to be handled during the pandemic, so it's a long run in case I'm not sure how it's going to resolve itself is supposed to stand trial fairly soon. But what we tend to find in cases like this, is that the court sarcana stymied in a way or they go into Canada, a torpor and the case never fully materializes. Because that keeps the people that are being accused and their place, if you like the sword of Damocles hanging over their head, and definitely a but it never actually comes to the crunch. Because that would risk obviously people being found not guilty or are being laid off the hook. And whereas if you can just sort of indefinitely see that this person is accused of such and such a crime, then it's a source of anxiety and uncertainty in their life, or, you know, over the longer term. So he's been on our radar for for quite some time now. And at the other end of the spectrum is one that just popped up this week, which is in Tanzania. At the beginning of this week, the local cartoonists association there, as well as an organization of a human rights defenders and released a couple of statements saying that they were worried about a cartoonist called updaters for wema, who appears was taken from his home on the 23rd or 20, early hours of the 24th of September, and hasn't been seen since a really they know that he is in custody. But he hasn't appeared in court. No charges have been brought. That's a violation of the Constitution. And Tanzania, you have to have charges within the first 24 hours. Otherwise they're in violation of the written constitution. And he just seems to be being held again, in the context of a pandemic. That's W objectionable because a we know that prison and jail are hubs for infection and Tanzania's vaccination program is barely underway. They just started distributing vaccines and, and August and there's a lot of hesitancy, unfortunately, in Tanzania as well. And again, appears hard to see when no charges have been brought, but from what we're being told by other cartoonists on the ground. It seems to be because of a cartoon a specific cartoon in kind of belittling the current a president. The former president, actually died of COVID Earlier this year, so a new president has taken over. And she's she's portrayed in the cartoon as being kind of naive and childish. And somebody somewhere not suggesting it goes all the way up to the top. But somebody somewhere seems to have taken a extreme offense at that. And a deprive them of his liberty.
Jesse:Wow. It's puts it into a different context, when we start talking in personalizing it to individual stories. Do you see any of the instances that have these kinds of things in in Europe or the United States?
Terry Anderson:Sure. A, again, keeping keeping things cotton if you like, a we had a nasty incident in Belgium, at the start of the pandemic, and there was two or three different cartoonists all drew as this as often happens, a drew essentially the same cartoon. When when a big news story breaks and everybody's working at the same thing quite often you get a kind of a, an overlap. So a two or three cartoonists old drew essentially cartoons that the US the Chinese flag, but substituted a the stars for Coronavirus, a particles. And, and one cartoonist in particular in Belgium, a lector. This was in January, so the pandemic hadn't really taken hold yet. People were definitely dying in China. By that point, they were probably dying elsewhere, we just didn't realize, excuse me, then realized that it was from me from the virus aim. But it was perceived as a Chinese story. At that point. Again, you had to call the police and the level of threat that came in to him. compel them to report it. And there were people like the ambassador to Belgium, leaders of things like the some of the larger Chinese businesses that have a presence in Belgium, colon finance, dismissal, calling for censure of the of the paper that carried the carton. And he and his colleagues would I'm sure see, by definition, the flag is a symbol of state. It's not assemble of the people. And that has target was never supposed to be Chinese people little and Chinese people that had died. His target was the was the government of China. And that's why he used their primary icon, their symbol, which has communist iconography, and the form of a flag. If anything, he would say, I went out of my way not to draw racial stereotypes, any kind of a, you know, pointed, a personification of Chinese people. It's by it's an abstract, a flag as an as a complete abstract. But nevertheless, you know, the, the accusation was, was was was racism. And it got really very heated. As far as those cannot control versus go in Europe. I've seen at least one Chinese cartoonist accused of the same kind of racism. A another cartoonist, we've advocated for budget show who's a Chinese This isn't no lives in Australia, a month or two ago, when there was really horrendous flooding in China. He took the Chinese flag. And this again is a person who has been he and his family have been actively persecuted by the CCP. So he's he makes no apology for the fact that he's an opponent of the government of China. But he took the Chinese flag. And again, as I can gladly concede, the red of the flag was was the was the liquid that was flooding the space. And the stars of the flag became hands of people submerged in the water. And of course, the waters, so to speak red, so it's also Badal no blood, it's redolent of the deaths that have occurred. And again, same thing accused of racism accused of belittling victims, blameless victims of a disaster, and so on and so on. And he said, No, I'm criticizing the government is mismanaged. situation and has allowed people to die. And I've done it without portraying any of your person. There's no, there's there's no specific effect on here at all. By definition I've taken. I've taken a flag, which represents a state. And that's the you know, that's the, if there's an insult to be perceived there as an insult against the state, it's not against the people. In the United States, probably the case that was most alarming of Lee, I would say, anyway, it came out of the George Floyd, killing and the Black Lives Matter movement. And obviously, a lot of cartoonists produced material a last summer on that basis. And educators wanted to talk about it. And political cartoons are often used in a classroom setting. And for the reasons we talked about earlier on in the conversation, they're a really good way to get a student to engage with a topic because the cartoon has to be interpreted. So the in an interpreting the cartoon, you have to familiarize yourself with the issue that they were talking about the moment in history that's being referred to what the events were, why is this cartoonist drawing this cartoon? And why are they saying what they're saying? So in this particular instance, it was a cartoon by David Fitzsimmons, who works for one of the Arizona papers. But his cartoon was in a classroom in in Texas. But essentially, it was it was a central cartoon that portray that a sequence of images, there's a prone black body on the ground, and you see him five times over. And what varies over the five images as the person that has their knee on this prone black person's neck, and it goes from a slaver type figure, to a plantation or to a KKK member, all the way up to a cop. And the point of the cartoon is that while the person with their need on the throat, varies over time, graphically speaking, is essentially the same person is the same victim through all five of the scenarios. And it's laid out in such a way I can have row three and then I move to that there's a blank space left at the end of the sequence, if you like. So essentially, the cartoon is saying this is going on through America's destiny. What comes next is blank. We either choose to continue the pattern or we choose to change. But the problem is, or was in this case, this particular controversy, as that was perceived by outside observers as opposition to police being inculcated and students. A the governor of Texas A Abbott, I think his name has wanted people to be fired, wanted the teacher dismissed wanted that to be repercussions at the school repercussions wherever the cartoon originated from and so on. And it's the same, or at least it's the is the other side of the coin from from from Samuel party. Samuel Party wasn't in endorsing the Charlie Hebdo cartoons. He was seeing we need to have a look at the Charlie Hebdo cartoons. Before we decide whether we like them best like them, wherever they justified, what happened next, and so on. The educated and that takes us classroom wasn't seeing. I agree with this cartoon, necessarily. They were seeing something has just happened that the whole country's attention has been focused on I need to figure out a way how we're going to talk about this in class. Here's some political cartoons and it wasn't the only one on the on the curriculum. Here's some political cartoons that explore the topic. You may not agree with the cartoonist. I'm not endorsing the cartoonist. But the cartoon his work is that as a way and it's a way and to a really complex and difficult a conversation. And I think in a really weird way. It's an endorsement of David, because if the cartoon wasn't so good, and wasn't as powerful as it as Maybe the controversy would not have occurred. A it's one of those ones again what I was talking about before, but it kind of just hits you a fill in the face with its with its opinion, with its sadness with its outrage. It's certainly not a cartoon that's supposed to make you laugh. It's it's a cartoon, it's supposed to make you think. And a teacher that just that just wanted to, to encourage thought, and the students suffered because of it. And we've seen what's happened since we've seen the the ongoing conversation about critical race theory and and everything else in in the context of schooling. So as an a North American context enemy, that's probably the biggest concern I can see on a for cartoonists as how do we, how do we occupy that? That space that we've become accustomed to occupying which is liberal or conservative? You don't you don't both sides and a cartoon? That's a lousy cartoon. So the cartoon is going to be coming down one way or another one issue? And, and how would I keep doing that? If somebody is not just gonna, like they would back in the day just right. Perhaps if they were really upset about it right away after the 8am but actually get so incensed that it's my job.
Jesse:How can people get involved with cartoon Rights Network International,
Terry Anderson:I used to be really coy about this, but those days are going to give us money. And we accept donations as as we're nonprofit. And so we accept donations. If people go to cartoonists res.org A, they'll find the the ways to do that people and so on. But times are too hard, I appreciate that. And people don't necessarily have the means to support every cause the care about so in terms of other things that people can do, I would say that if the news that you consume, you've become accustomed to not paying for it at all, figure out a way that you can address that figured out a way that you can put in a little bit of money, particularly into your local even your super local news provider if you live in a town that still has its own paper and or if you know for a fact that there is a cartoonist and you're part of the country figured out whether they've got a Patreon or a coffee page or any of these other ways of making a small small small but daily contribution to what they do. And if cartoons are completely absent from your news media of choice then ask why that is if there's a means by which you can contact the editors or the people in charge an cartoons aren't being used a then challenge challenge them on that ask why that is because I think most people we'll miss them when they're gone. And the the last few years anyway, you know that that ation of travel has not been intelligent in terms of a the long term prospects for cartooning where we've been used to consuming it alongside or news that has a future. I have no doubt about that at all cartoonist will continue to exist, but they're going to be quite significantly different from me, from the previous decade, even government century
Jesse:as as stories evolve of cartoonists that are under prosecution or criminalization. Is there a way people can stay tuned and into those stories?
Terry Anderson:Yep, so we are on Facebook, we are on Twitter, we are on Instagram. See our net and on Twitter and Instagram, a cartoon illustrates their work on Facebook. We try to keep as up to date there as we possibly can on everything that's happening in the main website as well. A cartoon straight.org the backstories get posted there too. And quite often you'll find does a forwarding information from some of some of our like minded a allies as well. There's the Association of American editorial cartoonists in the USA, Cartoon for peace over in Paris cotton movement in Amsterdam. And we're part of ifex, the big Federation of freedom of expression organizations based out of Canada. And we have a really good working relationship as well with a artists at risk connection arc. That's a pain America Initiative out of New York, a saw together with them and some of our other allies, cartoonists, professional cartoonist organizations based in different countries. And we try to get the information out, especially if it's, you know, someone who's in real need of support.
Jesse:If you had a microphone to the world, what would you tell it?
Terry Anderson:I would say that take take life. Seriously, but carry yourself lightly. And I think if that's if that can be achieved by everyone, then that will provide the breathing space for the cartoonists. Take them take the matters that are closest and dearest to your heart. dreadfully seriously, but don't take yourself too terribly seriously.
Jesse:Spoken like a true cartoonist. Well, thank you so much Carrie. After this recording, I got an update from Terry regarding the Tanzania and cartoonists update as FEMA. He was released on October 8, but it's apparent that a cybercrime case will be brought against him at a later date. cartoonists Rights Network international wants to urge the Tanzanian government drop any and all charges, citing Reporters Without Borders, who were quoted saying only the worst authoritarian regimes jail cartoonists over an ordinary satirical cartoon of the country's leader. This has been another episode of Miking Change. And I'm just so grateful to Terry and the entire crew at cartoonists Rights Network International, for all the work they do to protect the brave cartoonists to work to speak truth to power all around the world. I hope you've enjoyed listening to this as much as I've enjoyed making it as I work to make this project more sustainable. Your support would mean the world to me on social media. You can find me with the handle at making change. And please let me know if there's a mission that's close to your heart that you'd like covered here on this podcast. Finally, don't forget to hit that subscribe button and join me again next week as we work to put a microphone to the stories that matter.