Patrick Chappatte: ‘The path for satire has been getting narrower’
Patrick Chappatte creating a cartoon for the American newspaper The Boston Globe.
Carlo Pisani/SWI swissinfo.ch
Swiss-Lebanese cartoonist Patrick Chappatte talks in our latest On the Record episode about why satire remains both relevant and important.
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Listening: Patrick Chappatte: ‘The path for satire has been getting narrower’
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Where does Switzerland stand in the world? And where is it heading? I focus on current and possible future developments.
After completing my studies (history, law and European studies), I worked for a time at the Swiss embassy in Athens. I have journalistic experience at home and abroad, at the local and national levels, as a freelancer and as a staff journalist. Today, it's with an international focus.
I am a Visual Storytelling Producer specialising in long-form and serialised multimedia productions. I collaborate with journalists to improve tools and workflows across languages, ensure content style compliance, and lead the research and implementation of innovative visual techniques.
Born in Italy and raised in Africa, I now call Switzerland home. I studied film directing at the Italian National Film School and worked as a documentary editor and director/producer in Berlin and Vienna. I specialise in crafting multimedia into engaging narratives.
I am an experienced video journalist passionate about making complex topics accessible and engaging through compelling multimedia storytelling. Focused on social and environmental issues, I produce various video formats on a wide range of topics, specialising in impactful explainer videos with motion graphics and stop-motion animation.
During my studies in cinema, English literature and journalism, I’ve gained experience in radio, television, and print across Switzerland. After working with the Locarno Film Festival’s image & sound team, I joined SWI swissinfo.ch in 2018 to produce local and international reportages.
Geneva-based cartoonist Patrick Chappatte, whose cartoons are published among others in TheBoston Globe and Le Temps speaks as clearly as his cartoons are direct. As authoritarian regimes crack down on the press and a “caricature sits in the White House”, he aims to show “things how they really are”.
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A long-term advocate of freedom of expressionExternal link, he is concerned about the increasing global attacks on satirists and cartoonists. “Humour is a barometer for democracy,” Chappatte says. “Cartoons can act as an antidote to propaganda and disinformation”.
As president of the Freedom Cartoonists Foundation, Patrick Chappatte advocates for fellow cartoonists. “We used to fight for cartoonists in remote countries. We’re now fighting for our freedoms in our democracies.”
Chappatte currently works for media in Switzerland, Germany, France and the United States. His cartoons have been translated into numerous languages and published in 130 countries. He also publishes journalistic comic reports, appears as an expert in the media and tours with an interactive show, which he performs in both French and English.
Patrick Chappatte and Swissinfo journalist Giannis Mavris in the townhall of Geneva.
Carlo Pisani/SWI swissinfo.ch
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