Thursday, April 22, 2010

Video: Cartoonist Gregorius Nekschot On the Impact of Islam on Free Speech in Dutch Society

This is a 3 minute video from Dutch Danish television of Cartoonist Gregorius Nekschot and researcher Ajiedj Bakas talking about the impact of Islam on free speech in Dutch society. There is a short intro in Dutch Danish, and then most of the piece is in English.



Translation of Danish introduction:

Not only in Denmark do we have an on going discussion about the limits of free speech.

In Holland many artists censor them selves, simply because of fear of the muslims.

But here you can meet an artist who found a solution to that problem; he works under cover using a pseudonym.

But that doesn't stop Gregorius Nekschot

The artist has received death treats just like Jyllands Posten's Kurt Westergaard, which is why he works anonymously.

But he continues, unlike many others.


Translation and more information here.

2 comments:

Ger Apeldoorn said...

Thanks for this. The intro to this item is not in Dutch, but in Danish. Among Dutch cartoonists, Nekschot is not much respected, sometimes because of his beliefs, but usually because most of his cartoons are not very funny. It seems that some of the uproar about his work is just about that - that some of his jokes are only funny because of their outrageousness. and less funny because he makes the same type of jokes all the time and seems to mean everything he 'says'. In contrast, artist Peter de Wit, who draws the daily strip Sigmund, has had an enourmous succes with his 'burka' series of gags in that strip. There have been protests, but he has been able to counter those with the fact that he attacks other subjects just as fiercely. And his jokes are funny. A 'burka' book has been a great succes here and are proof of the fact that not all cartoonists censor themsleves. Maybe he should try and find Danish publisher.

Mike Lynch said...

Thanks, Ger, for the corrections and your invaluable perspective here. I appreciate!