One of the cartoons shown at the exhibit
On 29 April 2009, the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in Moscow opened an exhibition of works by leading Russian cartoonists Mikhail Zlatkovsky and Sergei Tiunin to commemorate World Press Freedom Day. The artists have more than 300 international prizes and awards between them and have been published in such major periodicals as “Le Monde”, “La Depeche”, “The New York Times”, as well as in the Russian newspapers and magazines “Kommersant”, “Literaturnaya Gazeta”, “Izvestiya”, and “Novye Izvestiya.” Moreover, Mikhail Zlatkovsky is editor of a unique professional magazine “Witty World” dedicated to cartooning.
In his opening remarks, the Director of UNIC Moscow stressed that political cartooning is a genre of direct impact, is up-to-date and fits well in today's information technology era. It is very effective, yet sometimes dangerously explosive. Most of the works displayed at UNIC Moscow were directed against intolerance and xenophobia.
A representative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) office in Moscow pointed out that World Press Freedom Day is a good opportunity to stress the importance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This year UNESCO highlighted mass media as a means for dialogue, mutual understanding and reconciliation.
Mikhail Zlatkovsky praised UNIC Moscow’s initiative to celebrate the art of the political cartooning. Both Zlaktovsky and Tiunin were unanimous in their opinion that cartoons reflected the essence of real problems and served as an effective means to expose them.
The event was attended by approximately 40 people including cartoonists, journalists, artists, diplomats, representatives of civil society and representatives of UN agencies.