As you know, at Voxeurop we give pride of place to press cartoons, whether through our cartoons of the week. or the illustrations for so many of our articles. Press cartoons are journalistic content in their own right, and it’s no coincidence that in many countries press cartoonists have a press card. More than ever, press cartoons are the yardstick for a country’s level of press freedom.
As a passionate supporter of this journalistic genre – which is under threat in a growing number of countries, including our own democracies – I was honoured to be a juror for the European Cartoon Award (ECA) for the second year running. This time round I was joined by Cuban cartoonist and winner of the 2022 prize, Carlos David Fuentes, Danish cartoonist Niels Bojesen (chairman), Dutch cartoonist Jip van den Toorn, and French cartoonist Patrick Lamassoure, chairman of Cartooning for Peace.
Created in 2019 by the European Press Prize and Studio Europa Maastricht when the New York Times decided to stop publishing press cartoons, the ECA “rewards courage and quality in press cartooning and fosters conversation on the theme of Europe”.
Behind closed doors, we examined more than 400 cartoons from 25 countries, compared our choices and refined our arguments, and of course pushed for “our” particular favourites. That’s how juries work…
From a longlist of 40 cartoons, we decided on the 16 cartoons that we present here. These drawings will be on show from 14 September until 3 December at the Beeld en Geluid museum in The Hague.
Click on an image to launch the slideshow:
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