– keep messages short with simple message wishing El Haqed well and that he will soon be free.
– no political or religious comment or images ( tourist cards are appreciated….)
– Give return address/email.

Send to:

 Mouad Belghouate

Prison local Oukacha 

Quartier Oukacha 

20 580 Casablanca, Morocco 

Víctor “Crack” Rodríguez is facing up to six years in prison for a performance piece.   After the general election in El Salvador that split the winning left party from the right by a margin of less than 1% percent, tensions in the country are high, especially amongst the nation’s community of artists, who are rallying to defend Rodríguez, one of San Salvador’s celebrated contemporary artists.

On March 9th, 2014 Rodriguez walked in to a ballot station and announced, “this is an artist action,” then proceeded to eat half of his ballot in front of polling station onlookers before casting the remaining half.  A video of the artist’s performance went viral.  But the situation quickly turned ugly as the Salvadoran legal system reacted, accusing the artist of electoral fraud — a criminal offence punishable by up to six years in prison.

Renowned Salvadoran artist Simon Vega is appalled by the charges:

The fact that many of us feel there is not one political party or candidate in which we can believe or respect yet having the authorities tell us that the vote is “the people’s most powerful weapon,” makes many of us identify with his action. According to the law, “Crack” could be facing from 2 to 6 years in prison for expressing himself in this way, how senseless! We won’t allow it. I think the action is one of the most important, consequent and effective works of contemporary art in Central America’s history, no doubt.

The artists’s collaborators Ernesto Bautista, Mauricio Kabistan, and Melissa Guevara, fellow members of the collective The Fire Theory, have created a petition in order for the art community at large to show their appreciation for the artist’s intention. The artists are hoping to use this petition as evidence to show that Rodríguez is a seasoned artist and that this “call to action” forms part of his practice and is not a crime.

see the whole article here: http://hyperallergic.com/116387/salvadoran-artist-faces-prison-after-eating-voting-ballot/

Just a few days after all the works by Saudi publisher 

Numerous news sources were reporting the removal of the books, while images and videos circulating on Twitter purported to show the protests against Darwish’s ouevre as well as the packing-up of Darwish’s books.

The order was reportedly given Wednesday to remove Darwish’s books from the fair after protestors objected to alleged blasphemy found in his works. A large crowd gathered, and security reportedly had to be called in. After that, the PVPV ordered the books removed.

This came not long after the Arab Network for Research and Publishing (ANRP) stall was removed from the fair and all the house’s books confiscated. In response to the ANRP seizure, Saudi Minister of Culture and Information Dr. Abdulaziz Khoja released a statement that said, in part, “the Kingdom’s security is more important than anything, and trying to destabilize our unity can not be tolerated.”

BY MLYNXQUALEY on MARCH 13, 2014

Text and image reposted from arablit.wordpress.com

I would like to refer to the ruling made by the Election Commission of Malaysia which bans the use of cartoons in the campaigns for the up-coming General Election. (General election’s date in Malaysia can only be decided by the Prime Minister, but must be called before the current term ends in March 2013).

The banning of cartoons during the election is comical and ludicrous. This is because cartooning is a legally-practiced medium in Malaysia and therefore the Commission does not have the right to forbid its use. Moreover, this is contradicting to the freedom of expression as provided to all citizens in Malaysian Constitution.

Malaysia has been ruled by the same political party since she gained independence 55 years ago. Since then, cartoons have been used as part of election campaign tool since the first general election. Why ban it now? It is no coincidence that this ruling comes after the rise of young Malaysian cartoonists using cartoons to criticize the ruling government.

I call for the Commission to withdraw this rule or it will become another Malaysian product of jokes to the world
community. Recently, Malaysia has become a laughing stock due to the action on cartoonists such as banning of comic books, the detention of cartoonist under the Criminal Act, as experienced by me.

Nevertheless, I would like to announce that I will be leading a group of cartoonists, the Kumpulan Kartunis Independen (KKI) and will be actively involved before and during the next election campaign. We will be opening our own Cartoonist Operations Centre and will be moving as a group in a van while campaigning for the coming election. Our focus is to expose fraud and corruption, misuse of public funds by the current government – such as Scorpene Scandal, NFC, the domeneering of the PM’s wife, etc. The message-laden cartoons will be distributed in various forms: brochures, posters, banners, videos, to name a few.

I am ready to face the consequences!

Zunar
10 June 2012

Press alert: Music Freedom Day 
– a global manifestation for freedom of expression for musicians on Saturday 3 March

In 48 hours, on this Saturday, the annual Music Freedom Day is marked with events, seminars, exhibitions, film shows, radio programmes and news paper articles on freedom of expression for musicians and composers all over the world.

List and programmes of events 
Events are currently being prepared in 19 countries:
Activities on Music Freedom Day 2012

Music Freedom Reports 
Freemuse publishes eight Music Freedom Reports from West Papua, Azerbaijan, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Libya, Pakistan, and more, on www.musicfreedomday.org.