The Volkskrant removed a print by cartoonist Jos Collignon from his website and other publications on Thursday. In a statement, the editors write that the image “stigmatizes Moroccans – in Morocco and in the diaspora.” In the image, two caricatured men on a scooter steal the World Cup prize from FIFA boss Gianni Infantino. The men wave a Moroccan flag.
It is highly exceptional that a national newspaper withdraws articles or cartoons. According to the editors-in-chief of de Volkskrant is ‘the freedom of columnists and cartoonists’ a ‘great good’, but does this image ‘contribute to putting a population group away’. That is “contrary to what we want to be as a newspaper”. The newspaper regrets that the cartoon has been distributed.
Collignon (72) has been discredited before when he, in de Volkskrant, posted a cartoon suggesting that PVV leader Geert Wilders is financed by Israel. In another controversial drawing, he illustrated black refugees jumping off a boat as it passed a Canal Pride boat. His prints appeared between 1977 and 1980 NRC Handelsbladafterwards de Volkskrant.
