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Editorial cartooning International

The Price of Humor in Turkey

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An update to the fate of Zehra Ömeroğlu, a Turkish cartoonist, who has been the target of criminal prosecution for a cartoon that was published in 2020 and faces a three year prison sentence.

On 26 June 2025, the 14th hearing of the trial against cartoonist Zehra Ömeroğlu will take place in Istanbul. Accused of ‘obscenity’ she faces up to three years in prison.

Özlem Altunok for Free Muse takes us through Turkey’s history of censorship to put Zehra’s situation in perspective and then details where Zehra stands today in her fight for satirical freedom.

Despite Ömeroğlu’s determination to continue her fight, the fact that her case has been ongoing for more than four years effectively transforms the legal process into a form of punishment. At the same time, the repeated postponement of Ömeroğlu’s trial constitutes a violation of the right to a trial within a reasonable time guaranteed by Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

All eyes are now on the 14th hearing of Ömeroğlu’s case, which will be held on 26 June 2025. Artists, arts and culture workers and activists have no choice but to come together and raise a strong voice against this continuous, normalised and diversified oppression.

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Comments 7

  1. Repression anywhere means repression everywhere.

    1. But does it warrant a prison sentence?

      1. Not in America. There’s many uncurated books in elementary-aged libraries offering lewder images.

      2. What makes you think that books not MAGA-approved were just thrown on the shelves without thought or consideration?

    2. The issue at hand, genius, is a cartoonist is Turkey being jailed for her art, which most of us agree is heinous, regardless of the country she lives in and whether or not some random yokel on the internet finds it “gross”. With her operating out of Turkey, I’m pretty sure none of her material is showing up in “uncurated” (sic) elementary school libraries in the US.

      Once again, you went off topic to make yourself feel morally superior, changing the subject to your pet AM radio talking point because you can’t feel okay about yourself unless you’re crapping on the blue-haired, porn loving degenerates that you imagine yourself surrounded by. I’ve seen a million of you in my lifetime and you are definitely not as special as you think.

  3. Not MAGA??? It’s a library’s responsibility to find common sense balance between protecting children and ensuring access to a wide range of information safe and age-appropriate for healthy psychological development. Pretty clear-cut that pornographic material “approved” for children is damaging…wouldn’t you agree?

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