Culture Ministry piles on teen for a political cartoon
Published: 05 Oct. 2022, 19:17
Updated: 05 Oct. 2022, 20:42
![A satirical cartoon depicting a train resembling President Yoon Suk-yeol’s face and first lady Kim Keon-hee, which won second prize in a national cartoon contest, is now at the center of public debate about freedom of expression. [SCREEN CAPTURE]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2022/10/05/95505f2f-d3a0-44d2-942f-d7cccf61b4f9.jpg)
A satirical cartoon depicting a train resembling President Yoon Suk-yeol’s face and first lady Kim Keon-hee, which won second prize in a national cartoon contest, is now at the center of public debate about freedom of expression. [SCREEN CAPTURE]
An organization representing webtoonists said it was “appalled” by the administration’s attempt to “blacklist” the organizer of the cartoon contest and slammed the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism for threatening to cut sponsorship using taxpayer’s money.
The contest last summer for middle and high school students nationwide was organized by the Korea Manhwa Contents Agency, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the Bucheon city government in Gyeonggi and sponsored by the Culture Ministry.
Judges were “randomly chosen,” the agency said.
The cartoon in question won second prize for a satirical depiction of President Yoon and first lady Kim Keon-hee.
The piece was displayed at the Bucheon International Comics Festival for four days from last Friday, but it wasn’t until a photo went viral on an online forum this week that it grabbed the attention of local media and the Culture Ministry.
Entitled “Yoon Suk-yeol Train,” the cartoon illustrates a train with the face of Yoon running on a track with panicky people trying to get away from it. A woman who resembles first lady Kim is seen looking out from the engine room, her hand positioned next to her mouth as if she’s giving orders to Yoon.
Four others are seen in the passenger cars behind, all wearing prosecutor gowns and hoisting swords.
On the bottom right are the words “Yoon Suk-yeol Train” in Korean.
The Culture Ministry issued two public statements on Tuesday criticizing the Korea Manhwa Contents Agency, at one point saying it would launch an investigation to find out why it failed to screen work that “explicitly shows political themes.”
The ministry pointed out that it allocated 10.2 billion won ($7.2 million) worth of state budget for the cartoon agency this year and that, as sponsor of the cartoon contest and festival, it specified that works that were plagiarized or had political themes could not be considered for awards.
The ministry complained that this stipulation was not shared with the judges.
The ministry said it gave a “grave warning” to the agency and warned of additional punitive actions.
In a statement issued on the same day, the Democratic Party denounced the Yoon administration for “cultural suppression,” accusing the government of violating freedom of expression.
In a carefully worded Facebook post, Bucheon Mayor Cho Yong-eek said it broke his heart to think of the student who drew the cartoon “suffering.”
BY LEE SUNG-EUN [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.
Standards Board Policy (0/250자)