India’s Rachita wins cartooning award
Geneva, May 3: Indian cartoonist Rachita Taneja and Hong Kong’s Zunzi were awarded the biennial Kofi Annan Courage in Cartooning Award on Friday, which is international press freedom day.
Taneja has been under threat of a prison sentence since a member of India’s ruling Hindu nationalist party complained about her online webcomic Sanitary Panels, whose stick figures take on subjects like harassment, homophobia, menstruation and authoritarianism.
Zunzi was dismissed by his newspaper in 2023, three years after China adopted
National Security laws that have reshaped Hong Kong’s arts, culture and media. Officials complained his images were “distorting and unethical”. India ranks 161 out of 180 countries on Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Press Freedom Index and Hong Kong ranks 140.
The ceremony on Friday for the Kofi Annan award is accompanied by an exhibition of press cartoons, which Iranian lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shrin Ebadi was due to open later in the day near the headquarters on Lake Geneva of the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights.
This year’s award and exhibition highlight “the pivotal role of women in the fight for freedom (and)... the challenges faced by female cartoonists globally” said the organisers — the Freedom Cartoonists Foundation and the city of Geneva. “We want to highlight the increasing numbers of women press artists. In addition to the pressures they are under due to their professions,” said foundation head, Swiss cartoonist Patrick Chappatte.