humorgrafe

Por: Osvaldo Macedo de Sousa

5) Que diferença há para si entre temas tabus e temas eticamente ignoráveis? Concorda que a Liberdade de expressão deve ser controlada por minorias políticas, religiosas ou sociais?
In your opinion what is the difference between forbidden issues and ethically ignored issues? Do you agree that the freedom of speech must be controlled by political, religious or social minorities?

Martin Turner (Irlanda) - No, certainly not. Religion is a myth and should be treated as such… likewise politics...social minorities (ie people who are categorised through no fault of their own) should be treated differently
Pereiro (Espanha) - A liberdade de expresao sempre está mediatizada
Harca (Espanha) - La libertad de expresión es incuestionable y sus límites no deben ser otros que la responsabilidad y la ley, basada en la Declaración Universal de los Derechos Humanos.
Daniel Ionesco (Roménia) - Any ethical issue which becomes politics is dangerous to the society and to the freedom of consciousness. When an moral topic of some group becomes aggressive it affects the morality of the majorities. The press should not ignore the forbidden ethical issues but has to be objective on both sides (still not to be confused with the ambiguity). It is immoral to cover the lack of immorality. The freedom of speech has to be controlled only by the pure sense of human dignity. The silence of the majorities makes the minorities to howl.
Alejandro Barba (Espanha) - La educación que recibimos hace que casi inconscientemente colaboremos en mantener ciertos tabús establecidos, y que varían de una cultura a otra. Eso podría ser controlado y mantenido por un sistema plenamente local; sin embargo, hoy día el intercambio de culturas, principalmente a través de Internet es brutal. Ningún colectivo es capaz de proteger hoy día nada, pues de forma casi anónima y sin necesidad de importantes recursos económicos se ponen en cuestión muchos temas ocultos de unos y otros, y con una capacidad de difusión impresionante. Lo que vengo a decir que por primera vez en la Historia, aunque siga existiendo la manipulación de los poderosos sobre los que están en inferioridad, no existe nada que se pueda controlar férreamente, existen fisuras por medio de las cuales con rápidez se puede derribar mucho. Y lo curioso es que cualquiera podría hacerlo, se trata de oportunidad constante y de saber aprovechar la ocasión, incluso con estilos grotescos o menos “académicos”. La cuestión de los temas olvidados... Sí es verdad que existen, y lo que se me viene al pensamiento ahora es que cada uno expresa lo que siente en ese mismo momento. Quizá haya cosas perdidas, pero el ritmo de vida tan intenso al que somos sometidos hace que el presente cobre la mayor importancia, y que resolver ese “presentismo” se torne lo más inmediato y vital. El rescate adecuado de esos temas suponen pequeños oasis a nuestro estilo de vida y también pequeños pero significativos regalos que nos podemos hacer unos a otros.
Wagner Passos (Brasil) - Ha limites para tudo, o limite é a racionalidade humana de respeitar raças e religiões, dentro de suas crenças benéficas para a sociedade. Dentro de seus males, de seus problemas, as religioes devem ser criticadas, pois só através da critica que se conquista a ética no mundo. Ela deve ser livre e nunca controlada. Mas quem controla no final de tudo é o poder judiciario, punindo e condenando jornalistas e chargistas do mundo inteiro.
Zé Oliveira (Portugal)) - Quase inconscientemente, tenho em mente o leitor-tipo do periódico. E tento comunicar com ele sem o ofender nos seus pressupostos; embora frequentemente tente surpreendê-lo. Sem ofender, insisto. Mas (Porque) a ética e a liberdade de expressão devem ser controladas pela minha cabeça. E só.
Juan Ramón Mora (Espanha) - La libertad de expresión no puede ni debe ser controlada por ningún colectivo ya que dejaría de ser libertad, si el tema es tabú es que detrás hay alguien que esconde algo y solo eso ya es motivo de reflexión.Hay temas que levantan pasiones como como son aquí los religiosos, hay noticias que a veces nos llegan de determinados colectivos que ofenden mucho más que cualquier dibujo y la minoría de los humoristas gráficos no acostumbramos a iniciar una protesta violenta en las calles ni a amenazar la libertad de expresión del vecino.
Andrey Feldshteyn (Russia) - There should be no forbidden issues at all. The progress will stop at the very moment when we will announce taboo on this or that question. But we always have to think about the audience, involved to the discussion. It is not a good idea to invite a fundamentalist cleric to the atheistic dispute, or the President of North Korea to the Rock Festival (Well. Maybe it is; it would be so cool, like Mao on Andy Warhol’s paintings.)
We should not harm innocent people in any case – this is the ethic of any discussion for me. That is why we should choose the audience properly (like do not sell Playboy to minors.)
Of course, the freedom of speech should not be controlled by minorities; it should be regulated by the author’s own sense of tact, by the society’s common sense, and finally by laws. For example, I do not like skinheads selling “Mein Kampf” on each corner, but it is OK to have it in the library for history studying.
Ermengol (Argentina) - Es bueno recordar que los medios de comunicación estan en manos de los poderosos, ninguna minoría del mudo tiene un medio de comunicación poderoso. Los temas tabú son diferentes según el país y su situación política. El tema religioso es el que más reacción produce. Es impensable hacer un chiste de Mahoma en un diario de Irán o publicar un cartoon sobre el papa en El Observatore Romano o hacer una broma gráfica contra Fidel Castro en el Granma.
Raquel Orzuj (Uruguay) – El humor gráfico es creatividad. No existe creatividad sin libertad. A veces, el dibujante, debe encontrar las hendiduras, para sobrellevar los límites impuestos. Para un Humorista gráfico no existen los “Temas tabú”, se recrean hasta volverlos “invisibles”, o con un enfoque que sorprendente, que el lector, o el propietario del diario acepte, “que nunca lo habían pensado asi”.
Nando (Argentina) - La diferencia entre los temas tabú ó los temas éticos es que los primeros son, en mi opinión más sencillos de abordar. Es a sensibilidad del artista gráfico la que permitirá que el tema fluya hacia la opinión pública de forma tal que no la agreda y que pueda el común de la gente pueda verlo, tratarlo y discutirlo. Considero que el Humor Gráfico es, en este punto, un instrumento muy útil para despertar conciencias sobre los temas tabú. En cuanto a los temas éticos, suelen ser más difíciles de tratar y a menudo más ríspidos de tocar desde el lado del Humor. Puede causar un efecto contrario al buscado el utilizar el cartoon para los mismos.
Bernard Bouton (França) - I think there is no difference. If political, religious or social minorities control the freedom of speech, then, freedom of speech don’t exist !
Tatyana Tsankova (Bulgária) - It is an issue of the priorities of the time and the characteristics of the society. Each society aims to maintain some mainstays, and when they are shaken, important issues and discussions are simply overlooked and passed over. The freedom of speech is a verbal labyrinth, as old as our own identification as Homo sapiens.
Marlene Pohle (Alemanha) - De ninguna manera. La libertad de opinión, de expresión y por tanto de prensa no debe tener más límite que la del propio sentido ético y moral del dibujante.Luchamos contra la estupidez humana o contra las instituciones que restringen nuestra dignidad, no contra el pensamiento o las creencias del individuo.
Omar Zevallos (Peru) - Jamás. La libertad de expresión no sebe ser controlada por nadie, sino perderá su esencia.
Chuck Asay (USA) -. It seems to me you are asking about my views on "political correctness"...is it a valid consideration for cartoonists who make their living pointing out the obvious even when that view is considered impolite? The story of the little boy who spoke up that the king had no clothes is an example of P.C. gone astray. There are delicate, P.C. issues which should be considered, however. I think a cartoonist might be wise to avoid taking on hot issues head on when the depiction utilizing bad taste might overshadow the point the cartoonist wants to make. For instance, my editors get very uncomfortable when I venture into areas criticizing people of color. Some of our readers might think I am a racist (I'm not) but my editors get concerned that the valid point I'm trying to make would be lost because of the issue is so hot. An example is attached. My paper chose not to publish that cartoon, "Who kills more blacks". That is not censorship, in my view. They have a property right to publish whatever they want in their paper. The point I make is true. Abortionists kill many more blacks in America than racists or Nazis. I think abortion is just as evil as racism or fascism. The cartoon was published in other papers however and drew large protest crowds. Papers containing the cartoon was burned on many colleges campuses. People were saying the cartoon was racist. I can understand why some issues are just too hot for some family papers to publish. I don't fault editors for having their P.C. antennas up.
Eduardo Welsh (Portugal) - Não existem temas tabus. Os temas tabus muitas vezes são aqueles que merecem discussão. Acho também que não existem temas eticamente ignoráveis, o que existe são formas eticamente reprováveis de tratar certos temas. Geralmente, estes tratamentos são naturalmente ignorados ou não são levados a sério. (Mas é muito preocupante quando o são, como no caso dos cartoons de Maomé). A liberdade de expressão não deve ser controlada nem por minorias, muito menos por maiorias! A liberdade de expressão deve ser controlada pela Justiça quando viola o direito de terceiros, em particular em casos de xenofobia e incitamento ao ódio e à violência. Existem casos que foram denunciados ao Tribunal Criminal Internacional, que espero que sejam punidos.
Andy Davey (Grâ-Bretanha) - No, freedom of speech should not be controlled by minorities, but we all have a responsibility to see that we don’t add to the persecution of these minorities. What I draw are only pictures. Simple pictures. They ask the question “what if..?” How can such a picture cause such outrage. We, as citizens, should all be able to respond rationally to images in the 21st century. The problems caused by the “Mohammed cartoons” were caused by people intent on stirring trouble, not by the images themselves.
Dário Banegas (Honduras) – Hay temas tabu en las sociedades como las que yo habito porque hay un “consenso” social de que no es bueno para el país “atacarlos” en los dibujos. Por ejemplo, la Iglesia. A mi particularmente no me parece que ese tema debe estar presente en las caricaturas porque yo soy cristiano. Otro tema “tabu” ha sido la vida privada de las figuras públicas que ni siquiera se enfoca en otros espacios de los Diários, mucho menos en las caricaturas. Y otros. Yo creo que la libertad de expresión debe promoverse hasta que se extienda lo más ampliamente posible, pero debe ejercer-se con responsabilidad.
Siro Lopez (Espanha) - Teño que repetirme. Nunha publicación humorística pódense tratar todos os temas e ningún debe ser considerado . Nun xornal de información si ten que habelos, por exemplo os dogmas relixiosos. Un católico lector dun xornal de información non ten que sentir ferida a súa sensibilidade porque o humorista gráfico fixo mofa da Eucaristía, poño por caso. Pero isto non quere dicir que sexa preciso limitar a liberdade de expresión. Escribín unha obra de teatro, titulada Hai que confiar na esperanza, que gañou o Premio Álvaro Cunqueiro no ano 2004, e que trata da loita dos xornalistas da publicación arxentina Don Quijote para derrubar o goberno corrupto do xeneral Roca. Conseguírono no ano 1890 e foi o trunfo da liberdade de expresión, conquerida heroicamente. A liberdade de expresión é unha conquista social á que non podemos renunciar por ningunha .
Nano (Costa Rica) - El tabú puede ser impuesto por los dueños del medio o puede ser autoimpuesto. En mi caso no hago chistes que incluyen muertos por una sencilla lógica, hablo por ejemplo que me manden a hacer un chiste en el cual por medio de la inoperancia de empleados de algún despacho de la República, suceda un accidente con saldos fatales que pudieran haberse evitado con un simple trámite burocrático. Aunque sea una lamentable falta de humanismo y sucede la fatalidad, no me gusta tratar esos temas porque al haber víctimas inocentes estaríamos jugando con el dolor de los que les sobreviven. El asesino más cruel del planeta, al que todos piden linchar tiene familiares, hijos, amigos, etc. ¿Quién haría un chiste sobre un grupo de niños violados? ¿O sobre un incendio en un centro penal en donde mueren muchos privados de libertad? A eso tabúes me refiero, usted los llama temas éticamente ignorables. Por otra parte la libertad de expresión es una forma de vivir y no tiene necesariamente que ser controlada por mayoría ni minorías. En mi país la libertad de expresión está muy arraigada…hasta donde la ficción de cada persona lo permita.
Derkaoui Abdellah (Marrocos) - i think in the cartoon domaine the only competent censorship is the the conscience of the cartoonist and to have freedom to create without any contraint whatever it is political , religious, or economist ...must say our opinion freely without insulting people or inciting them to make war ,racism and hatred ...
Farid Ouidder (Marocos) - Tant qu’il y’a des interdits, on peut les appeler comme on veut, ça reste des interdits. Ce pendant la définition et la défense de ces interdit etre le résulat d’un un travail de reflexion participatif ou tous les acteurs, (gouverneurs et gouvernés ) doivent apporter leur contribution.
Stane Jagodic (Eslovénia) - The world’s few democratic societies (above all in the West and North) are committed to freedom of expression even in the fields of humour and satire. With the help of a constitution they refuse control mechanisms. This is something that has not come about in any genuine sense in the countries of Asia, Africa and South America. The recent furious reaction of the Arab world to the cartoon by the European cartoonist Kurt Westergaard demonstrated an indescribable intolerance towards an idea that symbolised a suicidal reality, and this in the name of the prophet Mohammed. It was a simple poetic allegory that to a liberal European did not seem even slightly controversial. It is however true that the history of the Arab world does not have the same experience of artistic satirists that Europe has had from the Renaissance to the present day: Hieronymus Bosch, Matthias Grünewald, Francisco Goya, Honoré Daumier, James Ensor, Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, George Grosz, John Heartfield and many contemporary free-thinking artists. Arab artistic culture has mainly expressed itself with the help of decoration, the arabesque, above all in plant motifs and rarely in figural images. Global communicativeness thus collided with a civilisational, ideological and cultural barrier. The irruption of the Western European and North American mentality into the Arab world means, for Islamic civilisation, an intolerable policy that trifles with sovereignty and a millennial tradition. Muslim extremists therefore commit suicides and murders every day in the name of the Prophet. If someone destroys himself in the name of God, that is his own intimate decision, but if in the explosion he kills innocent people, this means a sacrilegious act worthy of sharp condemnation. Political manipulation of faith is an intolerable sin, whether the religion involved is Catholic, Muslim or something else. Pope Benedict XVI freely quoted a quotation about Mohammed but he made a mistake because he did not simultaneously condemn the outrageous violence of the Catholic Church over the course of its history. But the self-censorship in the face of Islamic terrorists with regard to a Mozart opera in Berlin represents unprecedented cowardice and suppression of the freedom of expression. For the production does not only talk about Mohammed but also Jesus, Buddha and Poseidon. With dramatic freedom the opera highlights a symbolic score-settling with the religions that in the past (and also in the present) have caused bloody religious wars in which heads were cut off and the blood flowed in streams.
I understand the Arab insurgence against an occupying army and domestic traitors, but I cannot accept terror used against innocent victims who are not involved in political disputes and wars. It would however be wrong to attribute terrorist actions to Arabs alone. In our modern peacetime world, European terrorists have wrought indescribable violence against the innocent civilian population through their chauvinist and anarchist policies. Most obviously in Ireland (Ira), Spain (Eta), Italy and Germany, not to mention the brutal fratricidal Yugoslav war. At present, peace reigns in Europe, maintained by democratic and open-minded forces. These also tame the Muslim extremists who, as newcomers, as migrants, even allow themselves to terrorise European thought and creativity that already has a tradition of freedom.
Even in Slovenia there have been frequent controversies involving Catholicism. Some years ago the open-minded magazine Mladina published a crude photomontage representing the Virgin Mary holding in her arms a rat instead of the Holy Infant. This controversial idea greatly angered and offended believers, since Slovenes venerate with particular devotion the image of the Madonna and Child. The incident caused a major controversy, accusations, court hearings, but no destructive or even murderous terrorist campaigns were carried out as a result of this controversial idea. Of course, it was an ideological dispute without a deeper political background.
I remember one more case of the insulting of Catholic believers in Slovenia, when in 1966 the poet Vladimir Gajšek, an acquaintance of mine, described the Holy Family in a shocking manner in a published poem. And a friend of mine, the late Fr France Križnik, an exceptionally open-minded human being, wrote the following about this poem that had so offended believers: ‘Although as a Christian I cannot agree with the poem The Holy Family, I was – and remain – convinced that the poet as a human being and an artist must have absolute freedom of artistic creation. We cannot play the Grand Inquisitor. Human freedom is so imperative and total that from time to time it is necessary to suffer humiliation and offence to our feelings for its sake. No authority in this world has the right to thwart the artist in his creative work. The question of what kind of relationship there should be between ‘limitless’ artistic freedom and cultural respect for certain ‘holy things’ must for the time being remain open. Perhaps we are situated here before a kind of deeper, paradoxical boundary that we are unable to resolve with our intellect, but which we are obliged to assume existentially, as an unfathomable human boundary with all its tense insolubility.’
This is the incredibly open-minded statement of which that great humanist and fighter for the freedom of expression Fr France Križnik, sadly no longer with us, was capable. However it is also possible to find in Europe or North America individual dogmatists, secular or religious, who even in an innocent satirical barb see an enemy who must be immediately removed from society. I have felt some of these pressures myself from political factions of both left and right. The worst occasion was when I made fun of the communist icon Marx (1985).
It is however encouraging that satirical thought is also making inroads in the Muslim world, as demonstrated by the exhibitions of cartoons in Istanbul and Teheran. The Turks and Iranians are becoming better cartoonists year by year, not only in the field of humour but also in satire. In the aesthetic refinement of their drawing and the profundity of their ideas, they sometimes outdo the achievements of European satire. The catalogue, or rather leaflet, from the Istanbul exhibition, contains a rather cutting cartoon (by an Arab cartoonist) about the Catholic clergy, whose barb was uncompromisingly directed at the Vatican – though not a single European has protested about it. I should mention that I myself have managed to get into the Teheran and Istanbul catalogues with a photomontage that was not wanted at certain conservative European cartoon festivals. Among the selectors at these festivals, who fortunately do not represent a majority, the myth of the sugar-sweet cartoons of Walt Disney is still strong.
Carlos Brito (França) - Os temas ditos tabus são impostos do exterior e portanto inaceitáveis. Quanto aos temas «eticamente ignoráveis », a decisão depende do foro interior de cada indivíduo e do seu grau de responsabilidade no exercício desta profissão. E evidente que a liberdade de expressão não pode depender da vontade de minorias politicas, religiosas ou sociais. E o principio mesmo do funcionamento elementar dos direitos democráticos que esta em jogo.
Jonathan Shapiro (África do Sul) - The attempt by most Muslims to prevent the graphic depiction of Muhammed could be seen as forbidden issue. I’m a strong believer in believer in freedom of speech. I don’t like the idea of political, religious or social groups preventing freedom of _expression, whether these groups be minorities or majorities. I have my own code of ethics and would not go out of my way to offend any group just for fun (so I would not have been willing to draw Muhammed just to see whether I could get away with it, though I would draw Muhammed if I felt it was important to make a point in a cartoon). That said, I am perfectly happy to offend religious groups if I consider that a religious doctrine is reactionary towards, for example, gay people or women. And I defend the right of other people, including cartoonists, to say things that I don’t like. I didn’t like most of the Danish cartoons about Muhammed, but I defend the right of the cartoonists to draw them.