Satirising the Syrian State An Evening with Ali Ferzat

Date: Thu 22 March 2012

Presentation followed by Q&A and reception

Ali Ferzat is a celebrated Syrian political cartoonist and dissident who was awarded the 2011 Press Freedom Prize by Reporters without Borders and Le Monde.

In 2000, Ferzat launched the satirical newspaper, Al-Domari   ("The Lamplighter"), which was forced to close three years later by the Syrian authorities.

Since the uprising began in Syria in March 2011, he has made the government's violent crackdown on protests the central theme of his work. For denouncing the corruption and human rights abuses of the Syrian Government, he was attacked in August by masked gunmen, who broke his hands as a warning.

He has recently been nominated for Index on Censorship's 2012 award for artists, filmmakers and writers whose work asserts artistic freedom and battles against repression and injustice

Ali Ferzat will also be taking part in the festival of Syrian culture, Reel Syria 2012, March 15-18.  www.reelfestivals.org

• www.amnesty.org.uk/syria
• www.mosaicsyria.org