Leunig cartoon on the world today ABC

Transcript

This is a transcript from The World Today. The program is broadcast around Australia at 12:10pm on ABC Local Radio.

You can also listen to the story in REAL AUDIO and WINDOWS MEDIA and MP3 formats.

Leunig drawings coopted in cartoon war	PRINT FRIENDLY	EMAIL STORY
The World Today - Tuesday, 14 February , 2006  12:46:00 Reporter: Jean Kennedy ELEANOR HALL: Australian cartoonist Michael Leunig has claimed today that he's the victim of a malicious hoax. Mr Leunig says someone faked his entry in a Holocaust cartoon competition in an Iranian newspaper, which had been organised in response to the controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. The Melbourne cartoonist, who works primarily for The Age newspaper, says he was shocked to learn last night that one of his drawings had been posted on the newspaper's website, as Jean Kennedy reports. JEAN KENNEDY: Michael Leunig says he received a phone call at around seven o'clock last night from a concerned executive from Melbourne's Age newspaper, alerting him that one if his cartoons had appeared on the website of Iranian newspaper Hamshahri. The Tehran-based paper is running a cartoon competition in response to the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that have enraged Muslims worldwide. But Mr Leunig says the anti-war cartoon he drew in 2002 depicting the Auschwitz concentration camp, and which The Age refused to publish, was sent in by someone pretending to be him. MICHAEL LEUNIG: Oh, it was a sort of a formal little thing saying hello, my name is Michael Leunig, here is this cartoon which cannot be published in my own country, I want to submit it. JEAN KENNEDY: He says he contacted the Iranian newspaper's website last night and asked that it be removed. The paper agreed and issued an apology. But Mr Leunig has told Melbourne ABC presenter Jon Faine that the incident is the latest in a series of controversies he's become embroiled in over his anti-war stance. MICHAEL LEUNIG: You know, I've been set up, horribly, maliciously, and to me it denotes what it means to stand up against this conflict and this warlike sort of state the world is in and, you know, it's difficult to take that stance in the public arena. JON FAINE: Do you think you might know who's behind the hoax? Don't name anybody, but have you got in your mind any theories? MICHAEL LEUNIG: Um, yes I've had a few emails recently, kind of anonymous emails, you know, taunting me to enter this competition, saying come on, you'd be a natural, said one of them. You know, these taunts come at me all the time and, look, it could be any number of people. There are a number of columnists and bloggers who have been particularly hateful to me for quite a long time and have suggested all sorts of hurtful and hateful things towards me. And you know, the mind jumps towards all these kinds of people. But I must refrain from imagining anybody in particular. It could be, it could be a kid. JEAN KENNEDY: The Age newspaper says it's seeking legal advice on Mr Leunig's behalf. The Communication's Director at The Age is Nigel Henham. NIGEL HENHAM: Well The Age is absolutely appalled, as is Michael Leunig, that someone would choose to fraudulently use some of his work, and also represent his words that are simply not his. This is a serious hoax, someone has acted fraudulently, and we are quite appalled by it, quite frankly. ELEANOR HALL: The Communications Director at The Age, Nigel Henham, ending Jean Kennedy's report.