Iraqi Cartoonists Facing Death Threats

[Barrett808]

Iraqi Cartoonists Facing Death Threats
By VANESSA ARRINGTON, Associated Press Writer
Sat May 13, 4:52 AM ET

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Freedom to criticize the government is one of the few things flourishing in contemporary Iraq. But editorial cartoonists who are testing the limits of expression face a different threat: extremists incensed by their art. During Saddam Hussein's time, speaking out could bring imprisonment, torture and even execution. Nowadays, the danger doesn't come from the government but the readers.

"These days there are two kinds of people: those who accept your drawings and criticism, and those who take the drawings as insults ... and threaten to kill you," said Diaa al-Hajar, a cartoonist for the government newspaper Al-Sabah.

The threats — which come by e-mail, phone and even cell phone text messages — have forced many cartoonists to flee the country. Others, like al-Hajar, are thinking about leaving. Some have shifted to biting complaints about general problems — corruption, power shortages, garbage collection — without necessarily pointing the blame at individuals or specific groups.

One cartoon that appeared Thursday in Al-Sabah showed a young boy and girl standing in a pile of garbage singing the national anthem, "My homeland, my homeland." The same newspaper printed a cartoon last month showing a chicken reading the paper while musing: "Very strange. People are scared of bird flu but not corruption flu."

"We fear the armed groups, because they show zero tolerance of criticism," cartoonist Abdel-Khaliq al-Hubar said. "They only accept what suits them. The message we always receive is 'Be nice, or else.'"

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060513/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_heavy_humor