In May 2019, Suhail H. Naqshbandi quitted his job of a cartoonist in a leading English Newspaper ‘Greater Kashmir’ after he suffered constant censorship.
“I started cartooning from the year 1998. My cartoons were published under the title “Inside Out” in the Greater Kashmir newspaper. It was my first editorial cartoon’s title. Then I left it after nearly four years due to the need to grow and learn. Only to return back to it after 15 years” says Naqshbandi.
“ I have called it quits with the Greater Kashmir as their editorial cartoonist. For a long time now, I was facing censorship of one kind or the other, the levels of which started getting absurd with authoritarian pressures on newspapers recently,” Naqshbandi wrote in a note posted on Twitter.
He says that the established pressure tactics were always there in Kashmir. There is a certain kind of censorship on Journalists, particularly on cartoonists but people do not say much about it. And when the levels of censorship became strict especially after Feb 2019, it affects our work.
“A cartoonist is not a reporter. He is a visual commentator who puts his opinion. As far as I talk about my work on political cartooning, I was always on the side of the underdog. I will talk about the one who faced some sort of violation. I won’t be impartial. If there are human rights violations, I will talk about it. ” adds Naqshbandi.
Watch the conversation:
Video By: Nadiya Shafi | Article By: Nusrat Ali
