A drawing, an apology and a resignation.
The cartoonist Xavier Gorce announced this Wednesday morning his decision "
to stop working for the World
".
In the January 19 edition of the morning newsletter
Le Brief du monde
du journal, the creator of the “
Indégivables
” published a drawing relating to the current movement on incest issues created by the Olivier Duhamel affair, which has aroused a lively controversy in social networks.
A little penguin asks an older one,
"If I have been abused by the adopted half-brother of my transgender father's partner who became my mother, is that incest?"
"
A "
drawing that should not have been published,
" said a few hours later the editorial director of Le
Monde
.
Believing that the drawing in question could be interpreted "
as a relativization of the gravity of the acts of incest, in inappropriate terms vis-à-vis victims and transgender people
", Caroline Monnot concludes: "
The world is keen on s' I apologize for this error to the readers who may have been shocked.
"
After these apologies, which themselves aroused the indignation of supporters of the press cartoon, and the withdrawal of his drawing, Xavier Gorce announced on Twitter and Facebook that he was ceasing to work for
Le Monde
.
“
Personal, unilateral and final decision.
Freedom cannot be negotiated.
My drawings will continue
”, thunders the designer.
Asked by Le Point before the public apologies from his employer and the withdrawal of his drawing, Xavier Gorce, who has worked for
Le Monde
for 18 years, had nevertheless assured: "
I have never had a censored drawing and I have always benefited of great freedom.
I guess this drawing must have been judged correct before its publication, otherwise it would not have passed… At the moment, the drawing is still on the site and I refuse to talk about censorship.
On the other hand, that the newspaper apologizes for one of my drawings, it is a first.
"About his drawing, the cartoonist believes that"
has been misunderstood, yet it is clear.
It is an irony on the words of Alain Finkielkraut who wondered about the fact of knowing what incest was, as if that could lessen the moral fault…
”
This new episode of a newspaper which returns to the choice of a publication under the pressure of social networks is part of a tense context since the attacks against
Charlie Hebdo
in January 2015. In the recent past, a title like
New York Times
announced in June 2019, after the publication of a cartoon deemed anti-Semitic, to give up publishing drawings in its international edition, as is the case with the American edition.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/KDCEOHMJRBODVI33DXPAD5XU7I.jpg)