Editorial cartoonists get together to compare notes, raise aid money

John C. Ensslin, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 9, 2006 at midnight

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Ali Dilam, an Algerian political cartoonist, stood before a roomful of 100 American colleagues in Denver Thursday and held up one of the cartoons that got him in trouble.

There are quite a few of them. Cartoons that poke fun at Algeria's president and military leaders, that got him arrested six times and led to the passage of what he called "Dilam laws" which seem aimed primarily at him.

"It warms my heart to be here," Dilam told members of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists, who are holding their annual convention this week at the Magnolia Hotel.

"I know most of your work through the Internet. It is important for me to be here because it gives me added protection," he said in French through an interpreter.

The crowd gave him a rousing round of applause.

This is what happens when cartoonists from around the country converge on one place. They compare notes on who they have offended and how. They raise money for cartoonists who have gotten into trouble. And in their wake, they leave interesting doodles on bits of scrap paper.

During the opening session, they also devoted much discussion to the issues raised by a series of Danish cartoons that touched off rioting in a few Arab countries earlier this year.

First they heard from a panel of religious leaders and then from a group of their fellow cartoonists.

Iman Ibrahim Kazerooni of the Denver Islamic Center said the issues raised by the Danish cartoons, one of which showed an Arab with a bomb in his turban, were not just matters of press freedom.

"The problem that we see here is not freedom, it's sensitivity," said Kazerooni, who questioned what kind of reaction cartoons that stereotyped blacks or that mocked tolerance would receive.

He found some support from cartoonist Steve Breen, of the San Diego Union-Tribune, who agreed that one of the Danish cartoons was offensive and said he was glad his paper chose not to run it.

But Breen showed a series of cartoons that did take on religious issues, such as one that commented on the sex scandal in the Catholic Church by adding the word "silence" to the list of seven deadly sins.

Ben Sergeant, a cartoonist for the Austin American-Statesman, argued that as religious leaders try to exert influence in politics, they become fair game for his cartoonist pen.

"If religion is going to enter the public arena, it's subject to satire just like everything else," he said.

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