Vakkas Dogantekin
12 June 2019•Update: 12 June 2019
ANKARA
The New York Times newspaper announced Monday it will no longer publish political cartoons in its international edition beginning July 1.
The newspaper made the decision after one of its "anti-Semitic" caricatures prompted outrage in Israel and among Israeli lobbies.
The Times also ended its relationship with two cartoonists who depicted U.S. President Donald Trump as a blind person with a Jewish kippah on his head and Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu as a service dog.
The Times said it "stopped running syndicated political cartoons, after one with anti-Semitic imagery was printed in the Opinion section of the international edition."
It later issued an apology, saying the cartoon was “clearly anti-Semitic and indefensible.”
Apparently stemming from high-level pressure from certain power centers, newspaper, instead of defending the freedom of expression, fired veteran political cartoonists Patrick Chappatte and Heng Kim Song.
The artists expressed disappointment and astonishment for getting fired over one cartoon.
Double standards for anti-Semitism and Islamophobia
The controversial decision to self-censor itself for "anti-Semitism" allegations is reminiscent of the paper's double standards when it defended an Islamophobic French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, after it published several hateful contents in 2015 against Muslims and Islam.
The Times back then, in the name of freedom of speech, ignored the demands of nearly two billion Muslims whose faith, Prophet and God were mocked and abused by Islamophobic Charlie Hebdo cartoonists.
PEN America, one of the largest U.S.-based non-profits to "protect freedom of speech, has so far turned a blind eye to Times’ decision and failed to defend freedom of speech of the two fired cartoonists.
The same organization in 2015 gave a Free Expression Courage Award to Charlie Hebdo after its torrent of Islamophobic content.
