The Minister of Culture, Pedro Adão e Silva, defended this Monday that comedians and “cartoons” should have autonomy, noting that the animation referring to the police and racism broadcast on the public channel refers to “the French reality”.
“It’s a ‘cartoon’ and I think we should take seriously this autonomy of what is the mood and humor over national and international political current events,” the official said, when asked by journalists about the controversial animation.
Speaking in Vila Viçosa, in the district of Évora, Pedro Adão e Silva insisted that “humor and ‘cartoon’ should be a space that should enjoy particular autonomy and non-interference in editing”.
The ‘cartoon’ by Cristina Sampaio, collaborator of the Spam Cartoon collective, shown weekly on RTP, is called ‘Shooting career’ and shows a police officer firing at the target with increasing intensity. At the end it shows the targets, which got darker as the policeman was aggressive, which serves as a metaphor for the theme of racism in the security forces.
In statements to journalists, the Portfolio Holder for Culture, who oversees RTP, stressed that there are “many recent, tragic examples” where there was a discussion about “the limits of humor and even how these limits of humor should be tolerated”. “.
“It always amazes me that many of those who defend the freedom of humor and ‘cartoon’ in certain subjects and later in others think all the opposite,” he underlined.
Pointing out that this “Cartoon” section has “existed for a long time in the RTP space”, the minister recalled that the author of the animation “has already recognized that this ‘cartoon’ is about France” and the events of the past week in that country.
“It is not worth transferring the French reality of last week to the Portuguese reality. I think this import is of no use to anyone and it is not worth forcing that interpretation,” he added.
On Saturday, the PSP’s National Union for the Career of Chiefs (SNCC) announced that it had filed a criminal complaint against the authors of the ‘cartoon’ and also against RTP for releasing it, as “there is an unequivocal intent to defaming and portraying all police officers as xenophobic and racist”.
“It has nothing to do with the PSP or with the Portuguese reality”
Contacted Lusa, the illustrator André Carrilho, co-founder of Spam Cartoon with João Paulo Cotrim – responsible for the ‘cartoon’ in question – found the complaint “nonsensical”, as the “cartoon” has “nothing to do with the PSP nor with the Portuguese reality” .
“We have been working for RTP since 2017 and the ‘cartoon’ is always made in the context of national and international current events, in this case international. It has to do with the event in France of the death of a young Frenchman. police which later led to several riots across the country,” explains André Carrilho.
In turn, an official RTP source told Lusa that “Spam Cartoon is a free opinion exercise on national and international current affairs that RTP has been organizing since 2017”, written by “some of the most recognized Portuguese cartoonists”.
“It has in no way served to incite violence against anyone. The values of freedom of expression and expression are fundamental to RTP’s democracy and public service,” the television channel stressed.
Criticizing the ‘cartoon’, the PSD has already questioned the board of directors of RTP, the CDS-PP criticized the Interior Minister for not defending the honor of the police services and Chega postponed the hearing Parliament of Public Broadcasting and of the Media Regulatory Entity (ERC).
Source: DN
