The Press and the State Caricature Contest Showed the Lighter Side Of the Sad Condition of The Media in Ukraine
The Institute of Mass Information in the person of its president Alla Lazareva and director Julia Sabri, assisted by the Reporters Sans Frontieres international organization and France’s Europeon trade union of daily newspapers (with support from the Embassy of France in Ukraine and the A Travers l’Europe Association), successfully held an all-Ukrainian contest of political caricatures called The Press and the State.
28 cartoonists from eight oblasts of Ukraine sent in 150 sketches. The general level of these works was very high, the jury pointed out. The latter consisted of Radna Sakhaltuev, animator, Meritorious Artist of Ukraine, and jury head; Pierre Wiazemski, cartoonist of the French daily Le Nouvel Observateur ; Yuliya Mostova, deputy editor-in-chief of Zerkalo nedeli; Anatoly Lerner, a Ukrainian cartoonist; Volodymyr Skachko, political observer of the newspaper Grani; Annie Dobanton, cultural advisor to the French Ambassador to Ukraine; and yours untruly.
The verdict was absolutely fair, and, as Mr. Wiazemski rightly noted, “The taste of each jury member and attention to the cartoon’s idea were taken as the assessment criteria.”
We can say with satisfaction that Vasyl Vozniuk from Zhytomyr won. With satisfaction to us because over the past year he has been brushing up his mastery nowhere else but at The Day’s editorial office.
The ten best pieces (see The Day # 11, April 4, 2000) also included the work of The Day’s another artist, Ihor Lukyanchenko. This is all the more gratifying, for they had to compete with such giants of the genre as Yuri Kosobukin and Volodymyr Kazanevsky. One more master who once worked for The Day but is unfortunately no longer among the living, outstanding artist Anatoly Kazansky, was also mentioned at the press conference. His works will also be exhibited and entered in the catalogue. One can say
The Day is the storehouse of talented caricaturists.
The winner will fly to Paris for four days and exhibit his works there. As to Ukraine, there will be three exhibitions of contest winners here: at Verkhovna Rada, Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, and the national Union of Journalists, exhibiting a total 30 works.
Judging by almost all contest works, our native Ukrainian authorities do nothing but oppress the press. Oleksandr Zinchenko, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada freedom of speech committee, decided to personally look over the sketches before exhibiting them in Parliament.
The press conference heard one more idea: to hang a mirror alongside the sketches, so that the lawmakers could also see their own exact reflection in addition to the distorted one. Mr. Zinchenko, honorary chairman of Inter television, approved the contest results and even pointed out to its organizers, “You can’t possibly sue your own reflection.” Quite right.
