Link: https://www.thetimes.com/uk/media/article/licence-to-offend-exhibition-cancelled-77c8nwk2f
Non Paywall Link: https://www.removepaywall.com/searc...ence-to-offend-exhibition-cancelled-77c8nwk2f
Credit: Alex Farber, Media Correspondent, The Times
Archive: https://archive.ph/r9Qtm
A cartoon for The Times by Morten Morland that was part of an exhibition titled Licence to Offend
An exhibition of work by political cartoonists including The Times’s Morten Morland has been cancelled because of fears it could cause offence.
Hours before a private viewing on Wednesday, organisers of Licence to Offend told guests not to go after a last-minute decision by the venue, the TownSq co-working space in Kingston upon Thames, southwest London.
The decision to pull the exhibition was criticised as “idiotic” by Morland, who started working for The Times in 2002.
His work had been hung in the venue on Saturday alongside previously published cartoons from Mac and Pugh of the Mail titles, Patrick Blower of The Daily Telegraph and Martin Rowson of The Guardian.
The cartoons had been hung at TownSq Kingston, a co-working venue
The exhibition, featuring satirical images of Donald Trump and Sir Keir Starmer and the tech billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, was due to open to the public on Thursday and run until June 13.
But in response to concerns from a couple of its members, TownSq told the organisers, Whitelight Projects, that it must remove the cartoons after the private viewing. As word spread about its decision, it opted to stop the event, citing fears about staff safety.
• Morten Morland: When satire is deemed offensive, we should all start to worry
TownSq said its policy was to operate a “politically neutral environment”.
“The fervour and discord around this event has been a testament as to why,” a spokesman said. “This was not a decision that we took lightly, and we’re frustrated that it needed to be taken at all. We admire the artists’ work and the months of effort that [went] into curating it, but the conditions created following it meant it would be unsafe to host the exhibition.
Morland’s cartoons satirised Sir Keir Starmer and, below, the tech billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk
Morland accused TownSq of using “weasel words about not wanting to be political” to justify its actions.
“But the decision to deny freedom of expression is in itself a hugely political act,” he said. “These weren’t offensive cartoons. They were cartoons that had already been printed in national newspapers. I’ve never experienced anything like it. It’s an idiotic decision on so many levels.”
Morland’s takes on President Trump’s inauguration and his Oval Office meeting with President Zelensky were included in the exhibition
Morland said it represented a more insidious type of censorship than when some people “noisily take great offence” at certain cartoons. “This shuts down any discourse before it’s even been allowed to happen under the pretext that someone somewhere might have objections to something,” he said. “That is surely a much more offensive concept.”
Zoe Dorelli, the curator of the exhibition, which had taken months of planning, said that she was “gutted” by the decision. “It’s quite amazing that we pulled together most of the best cartoonists that are working at the moment. One should be sort of celebrating this kind of thing and not pulling it.”
Whitelight Projects is trying to find a new venue for the show and said it was considering a number of offers.
Non Paywall Link: https://www.removepaywall.com/searc...ence-to-offend-exhibition-cancelled-77c8nwk2f
Credit: Alex Farber, Media Correspondent, The Times
Archive: https://archive.ph/r9Qtm
A cartoon for The Times by Morten Morland that was part of an exhibition titled Licence to Offend
An exhibition of work by political cartoonists including The Times’s Morten Morland has been cancelled because of fears it could cause offence.
Hours before a private viewing on Wednesday, organisers of Licence to Offend told guests not to go after a last-minute decision by the venue, the TownSq co-working space in Kingston upon Thames, southwest London.
The decision to pull the exhibition was criticised as “idiotic” by Morland, who started working for The Times in 2002.
His work had been hung in the venue on Saturday alongside previously published cartoons from Mac and Pugh of the Mail titles, Patrick Blower of The Daily Telegraph and Martin Rowson of The Guardian.
The cartoons had been hung at TownSq Kingston, a co-working venue
The exhibition, featuring satirical images of Donald Trump and Sir Keir Starmer and the tech billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, was due to open to the public on Thursday and run until June 13.
But in response to concerns from a couple of its members, TownSq told the organisers, Whitelight Projects, that it must remove the cartoons after the private viewing. As word spread about its decision, it opted to stop the event, citing fears about staff safety.
• Morten Morland: When satire is deemed offensive, we should all start to worry
TownSq said its policy was to operate a “politically neutral environment”.
“The fervour and discord around this event has been a testament as to why,” a spokesman said. “This was not a decision that we took lightly, and we’re frustrated that it needed to be taken at all. We admire the artists’ work and the months of effort that [went] into curating it, but the conditions created following it meant it would be unsafe to host the exhibition.
Morland’s cartoons satirised Sir Keir Starmer and, below, the tech billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk
Morland accused TownSq of using “weasel words about not wanting to be political” to justify its actions.
“But the decision to deny freedom of expression is in itself a hugely political act,” he said. “These weren’t offensive cartoons. They were cartoons that had already been printed in national newspapers. I’ve never experienced anything like it. It’s an idiotic decision on so many levels.”
Morland’s takes on President Trump’s inauguration and his Oval Office meeting with President Zelensky were included in the exhibition
Morland said it represented a more insidious type of censorship than when some people “noisily take great offence” at certain cartoons. “This shuts down any discourse before it’s even been allowed to happen under the pretext that someone somewhere might have objections to something,” he said. “That is surely a much more offensive concept.”
Zoe Dorelli, the curator of the exhibition, which had taken months of planning, said that she was “gutted” by the decision. “It’s quite amazing that we pulled together most of the best cartoonists that are working at the moment. One should be sort of celebrating this kind of thing and not pulling it.”
Whitelight Projects is trying to find a new venue for the show and said it was considering a number of offers.
