Cuban cartoonist wins Excellence Award in press freedom contest

May 22, 2019

"The good journalist prefers to save the news rather than his life" said Cuban Alfredo Martirena this Tuesday, winner of the Excellence Award in the Press Freedom Cartoon Contest in Canada.

Martirena's winning cartoon, in the nineteenth edition of this international competition, depicted a reporter in the trench, while protecting his Laptop with his body, in a professional gesture to safeguard information even at the risk of his life.

'This cartoon is a tribute to the hundreds of journalists who are killed every year in different parts of the world, serving as reporters, photographers or cameramen, with the noble purpose of denouncing acts of corruption or mistreatment of citizens', he said.

This event was organized this year by the Canadian Committee for World Press Freedom and the topic to be addressed was titled 'Open Season for Journalists', with 370 works submitted from 29 countries.

Martirena, cartoonist for the weekly Melaito, in the Cuban province of Villa Clara, won this contest five years ago and has also won, on two occasions, the Grand Prize Eduardo Abela, from the International Biennial of Graphic Humor, Cuba, 2011 and 2017.

In addition to Alfredo Martirena, the cartoonists Musa Gumus, Hicabi Demirci and Kaan Saatci, from Turkey; Sergii Riabokon, from Ukraine; Americans James Silk and Chip Bok, Mexican Darío Castillejos; Niels Bo Bojesen, from Denmark and Marco De Angelis, from Italy, also received the Excellence Award.

Source: Prensa Latina