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Meeting Of The Members of International Committee of Directors of Cartoon Festivals/October,2024
Subject:What solution do you suggest for cartoonists who have not received their award from many festivals?
 
As European Cartoon Center and Euro-kartoenale Kruishoutem we always find it very important to respect the rights of the cartoonists in every way. As one of the oldest cartoon contests in the world it is our top priority in organising a cartoon contest.
We are very said to see that a lot of cartoon contest organisers like to put there own interest before that of the cartoonists. Unfortunately it is an important reason why a lot of cartoonists do get encouraged and it effects other competitions.
Winning an award is an incredible achievement that must be honoured. Here are some tips I like to share with cartoonists who do not receive their prize money. 
For me it all starts before even participating. The first rule is to check the competition rules and try to check the reputation of the organizers.
A no brainer is to make sure the prize amount is realistic and in line with the life standard of the country. If it is too high or very low you should pay attention. In the contest rules you can also read information that should give some information. Look for contests that provide transparency regarding their judging process and prize distribution:  do the rights stay with the artist,  is there an exhibition (or only online), is there a catalogue, is there a date and place mentioned for the prize giving ceremony etc, … ? But the most important: is there a clear view on the contact person ?  Do they mention the full name of the organizers, website, a post adress e-mailadress ,.  It seems very basic but without this information it is impossible to contact the organisers when there are problems.
Of course you should check the reputation of organisations f.e. through contacts with other cartoonists or by the FECO rating system that gives a good indication. Do others had bad experiences with the organisers?
A brand new contest? That’s great ! Perhaps you can check with cartoonists, cartoon museums, etc. of that country if they know the organisers and if they think it is a serious competition.
So everything looked right, you decided to participate and yes you did win. But you are not invited to the opening ceremony or you can not go and you keep asking for your prize money without any reaction.  Often this seems a very difficult one .
Reach out to the organizers to inquire about the status of your prize. Be polite and professional in your communication. Sometimes, delays occur due to logistical issues, and a gentle reminder can help.
I would suggest to document every step. Keep a record of all communications with the contest organizers, including emails, announcements, and prize confirmation messages. This documentation can be crucial if you need to follow up or escalate the issue.
If possible, reach out to other winners to see if they are experiencing similar issues. There’s strength in numbers, and a collective inquiry can prompt the organizers to act more swiftly. You can also contact jury members, cartoonists organisations or other cartoon competition organisers who may have impact on the organisers.
I would recommend to only recall to the use of social media if the actions before did not have any result. Public visibility can sometimes encourage organizers to fulfil their commitments. But be careful to remain respectful and factual in your posts. Regardless of the situation, maintain a professional demeanor. The cartoon community is often interconnected, and it’s important to preserve your own reputation as a  cartoonist.
If your prize is substantial and the organizers are unresponsive, you might want to seek legal advice. Understanding your options can help you decide the best course of action.
But finally I want to ask every cartoonist : please don’t let this situation dampen your creativity and motivation. Continue to produce and submit your work to other contests or exhibitions. Your talent deserves to be recognized, and there are many opportunities out there.
To all organisers I would like to say: be transparent and honest and please be sure that you can keep your promises. If you are not sure in advance that you can pay the prizes or organise the whole event: just don’t do it! Take contact in advance with experienced organisers because organising a good cartoon competition costs a lot of money and is not something you should start unprepared- even if you are very motivated.
Saskia Gheysens
European Cartoon Center
Euro-kartoenale Kruishoutem
Belgium
I think the only solution is to report, we should create a platform where all the cases and their solution are exposed, if they have one, the organizers could also defend why they have not been able to pay.
 
Adriana Mosquera
 
 
 
 
Hello dear friends,
As a cartoonist who suffers from the same problem, first of all I have to say this; We see that cartoon competitions have turned into a completely commercial event in some cases. In such cases, it saddens us to see that respect for art and artists has fallen to a minimum level.
   The intense effort made to ensure participation since the announcements of the competitions turned into a very different attitude after the competitions were concluded, the artists have been ignored, the award ceremonies have  not been held on the dates specified in the specifications, the cash prizes have not been paid, and the artists who tried to contact were ignored. This is a big mistake.
   Let us not forget that we are the majority, we are strong and we deserve the respect.. We must act in an organized manner and not become accustomed to this attitude.
    I think this attitude may change if the artists protest it, try to make their voice heard, expose the organization and do not participate in the next editions of those competitions (its very important). In this way the artists should  penalized  the organizations that do not pay the prize money to the artists who won the award.
 This is the only and strongest trump card we have.
Best wishes
Menekse CAM

 

 Here are some suggestions
1) Establish the facts of which the organiser is accused in accordance with the rules of the competition
Attention: in some competitions the delivery times of the Awards are well indicated
2) Send a message on behalf of the committee, with the signatures of the members of the committee to express the complaint to the organizer
3) If the organizer does not respond, or if his response is not acceptable, then we must establish the list of bad contests and publish it
Greetings
Bernard
 
 
I can't imagine that any contest administrator would arbitrarily refuse to award a prize. Contests are usually organized with the help of sponsors. It is possible that the promised prize cannot be awarded due to circumstances that may arise from the contest sponsors. Otherwise, as I mentioned at the beginning, I can't think that there would be any thought of not giving the prize from the very beginning. I don't think there would be such a person, there shouldn't be.
We have been organizing caricatures for 16 years.We am trying to continue the contest that we started with Professor Atila Özer. We have given awards to about 100 cartoon artists who have received awards so far. Except for one person. That was a situation arising from the contest sponsor. We are still making attempts to award the prize to the cartoon artist who could not be awarded.
My answer to the question of what can be done for organizations that cannot give their awards can be as follows: First of all, the organization that cannot give the award should be contacted and the reason for not being able to give the award should be learned. It should be checked whether the reason is rational or not. Both sides should be listened to and then a decision should be made.
 
 
Nazmi
 
 
 
He/she should contact the institution that did not give the award. The reward that has not been sent must be requested to be sent. It should also be noted that if he does not send it, it will be exposed on international platforms and social media. If the reward is to be sent, a certain period of time must be determined. If the award is not sent despite these, that institution must be exposed in every environment.
Best wishes
Aşkın
 
 
 
 
In order to provide a solution for the non-sending of awards in Cartoon Competitions, we need to have some information.
1. Which countries and festivals do not send awards?
2. Which artists did not receive the awards they won?
First of all, a list should be created. We should seek a solution in line with the information obtained.
Artists should send information, we can investigate this information. If necessary, we can write letters to festival organizers. Let's also ask them what the problem is.
There are problems between the embargoed and the embargoing countries. We should look for solutions, especially regarding sending monetary rewards.
 
 
Mehmet Kahraman

 

1. You make a list of the directors' emails. Having it ready to copy - without the names, with them is another list.
2. You send to everyone - the name of the person who did not receive a prize, the name and e-mail of the contest and the name of the Chief Organizer.
3. You send instructions to everyone: with information about what the award is, when it is expected, and a request that everyone write a letter of recommendation in their own way and words, and send it to the boss or the Organizing Committee, to send the award to the awardees.
4. Write a request to each director, when he sends his e-mail, to also address a hidden copy to you, for the sake of the archive and subsequent processing of the data.
5. After waiting for the response of the boss or the Organizing Committee of the contest, the generally accepted term is 14 days or 2 weeks. This is checked by you in contact with the injured colleague.
6. After an e-mail from you, as the coordinator of the association of directors to all, it goes to public information of the public by all directors in Vriki networks. Everyone will present information about the problem in their own way. Multifaceted and with different text.
7. Be aware that contests from the Far East and Latin America sometimes delay the payment and sending of prizes for more than half a year. Keep in mind.
8. A second check is: whether any other colleague in the world has received his award from the same competition. An important clarification, after the first letter to the Organizing Committee or the Chief, to wait for an answer during these 2 weeks, after which a second letter is sent specifying that if there is no answer after another 2 weeks, the problem will be written about in the world media by all directors .
Best regards
Valeri Alexandrov
 
 
 
They should inform the FECO and this board.
On the other hand, some procedures should be set but it requires more serious actions and organization.
Regards
 
Nikola
 
 
 
 
 
This is a big problem, and the solution is to inform the public, cartoonists to boycott such festivals. Cartoonists from the country where there is such a festival to react in their country and highlight this problem in the media.
Damir Novak
I have to tell you that a lot of authors do not have good works and it is difficult to win awards, unfortunately that is the way it is and the competition is great. It is important that these authors improve their drawing and idea and build their style over time in order to enter the competition for awards. Unfortunately, a big problem is juries that favor authors from their own countries and thus lose their reputation in the world. nice greetings to you
Marko Ivic
 
 
 
I answer the question: What solution do you suggest to cartoonists who have not received their award in many festivals?
I am convinced that the directors of comedy festivals do not pay the winning cartoonists because they want to do so, or because they are bad people, or because they are corrupt, etc. I'm sure there are important reasons that prevented them from paying. Reasons that do not depend on them.
However, they have to be responsible for announcing prizes in the bases of their calls and then not delivering them. And regardless of the reasons, it is an unavoidable duty to pay. An obligation.
Therefore, the only thing I can think of is to give them a short period of time to get the money necessary for payment. A kind of ultimatum. And if they don't, create an international campaign to boycott the contest and prevent any creator from participating.
I don't know if few of those directors of comedy festivals care that their event is discredited or disappears. But if they care, they would even take the money out of their own pockets to save the serious situation in which they are involved.
I also don't know about legal issues that injured cartoonists can exercise, because that would be another solution. Although if nothing has happened so far in this regard, it is likely that this solution will be almost impossible.
What there is no doubt about is that this problem has to be resolved urgently, because not letting the credit, prestige and reputation of our humor festivals fall, should be the main objectives of us, in the world of Graphic Humor, above all. all in these times where remunerative spaces for cartoonists are increasingly scarce.
Let's hope that applying good pressure will solve this problem. Let's trust in everyone's good intentions.
Pepe Pelayo
Dr. Sapiens International Humor Contest
 
 
 
 
The big problem with artists who end up not receiving the respective awards they win at Festivals has several reasons:
        1) Some of the times, which are not the fault of the Festival organization, it happens due to the difficulty of making bank transfers to certain countries and sometimes the large percentage that banks charge, causing the majority of the money to stay in the bank instead of being the artist to receive. It is up to the artist and the organization to find the best way to resolve the issue.
        2) Other times there is already bad intention on the part of the organization. Individuals or groups of individuals who launch Festivals for their promotion, when they do not yet have the necessary economic support to do so and when the time comes for payments they do not have the money. These individuals and organizations must be blacklisted and boycotted from that moment on. The most natural thing would be to take legal action against the organization, however this is very expensive, especially if the artists are from distant countries. Unfortunately, it is difficult to create an international body of lawyers to defend these cases in local courts.
3) There are also cases where everything was well organized and suddenly the economic structure on which the Festival was based disappears and in this case the organizers are not to blame. Here the organizers must justify themselves directly to the artists and find a platform of total understanding between both parties.
        The most serious thing in cases of awards without payment is when the organization, in addition to not paying, becomes the owner of the original. This is not only a violation of the regulations, but also theft of the original. This factor must be well reported so that the accusation is very public and the Festival, from that moment on, is boycotted by all artists. For me, all Festivals should be made using digital copies and the original should only be delivered upon receipt of the monetary prize.
 
 
Osvaldo
 
 
This should never happen. Perhaps, a platform should be created where award winners can publish festivals that do not comply with regulations. Another suggestion I have is that festivals should have an awards deadline.
 
Ricardo
 
 
To send a letter to each Festival to justify. There should be a description of which cartoonist was not awarded the award.
If the justification is not sufficient to remove a rating from FECO. To publish the names of the Festivals that are not consistent.
 
 
Yiannis
 
 
 
In the event that the winner does not receive the prize, he should consult the advice of the directors of world festivals. The members of the board of directors then send a warning letter to the festival giving them a deadline to send the prize to the winner. In the event that they do not do so within the given period, the festival will be boycotted, that is, until its closure. This is done through the world-famous cartoon site ,,tabrizcartoon.com, which is edited by Mrs. Leila Alaiy from Iran. How is this achieved? First, a blacklist is made of festivals that did not respect the participants and winners of that festival. Every new launch of theirs, i.e. announcement of a contest for a new competition will be canceled by this site and the cartoonists will be informed not to participate in it. Then when that festival fulfills all obligations and settles the winners, it is deleted from the black list.
 
Darko
 
 
The problem of competition organizers not fulfilling their promises, which prevents award-winning authors from receiving the rewards they deserve, has been a long-standing issue. If this issue is not resolved, it will greatly dampen the enthusiasm of the participants and damage the credibility of the organizers. I have encountered this situation several times before.
Cartoonists cannot remain indifferent to such unethical behavior. We must stand up, express our position, and fight for our legitimate rights and interests. Therefore, I propose the following suggestions and hope to reach a consensus with the majority of comic artists:
1. The organizers of the competition shall specify detailed information such as the organizer's organizational structure, name of the person in charge, contact phone number, and mailing address in the call for submissions.
2. Establish columns on cartoon websites and social media to report and expose organizations that fail to fulfill their promises.
3. For competition organizers who lack credibility, they should be blacklisted and made public, so that cartoonists around the world can collectively boycott their organized competitions.
4. Conditions for inclusion in the blacklist:
(1) For organizers who do not proactively communicate with the winners within two months after the announcement of the competition results.
(2) After contacting the organizers, the winners did not receive any response from them.
(3) After the competition ended, the organizers never announced the results of the competition and did not contact the winners.
(4) The organizer deliberately fails to fulfill their promises by making excuses.
(5) The organization fails to fulfill its commitments and fails to correct it after being reported.
 
Fan Linato
 
These are my proposals for innovations in the functioning of humor, satire and caricature festivals
- All festivals should make efforts to have the first, second and third prizes in a monetary amount, which will be paid no later than 30 days after the end of the festival.
- The winners of the first, second and third prizes should be given independent exhibitions during the year.
- Efforts should be made for award winners to attend the festivals, at the expense of the organizers.
- All authors selected for the exhibition should receive catalogs from the festivals. More
 it would be better if all participants could also receive.
- If there is a competition for students, for younger categories, it will contribute to calling new authors.
-Festivals should expand cooperation among themselves and make more exchanges of exhibitions during the year.
- For any problem regarding the delivery or payment of prizes, they should inform us how we would be involved within our possibilities to help them.
- Let us get involved in helping authors for an exhibition in the countries where we live. Here, I am making myself available for Macedonia.
For this call of mine, those are my suggestions.
 
Regards.
Mile Gjorgjijoski
 
 
 
We are witnesses to the fact that there are many cartoonist societies in the world that organize international cartoon festivals. The organizers are usually individuals engaged in cartooning, artists, or people from other professions who possess a talent for this form of visual art. They register their societies with ministries of culture. In addition to those organizers who work for their own personal interests, there are also organizers who act out of enthusiasm and passion for this type of art. Those who work for their own benefit sometimes fail to fulfill their obligations, and their behavior is detrimental to other members.
Funds obtained from various donors, as well as funds received from the Ministry of Culture, are considered their personal resources, which leads them to disregard certain rules, including awarding the winners. In all this, these organizers promise cash prizes. Later, they do not fulfill their obligations and delay payments, all for the sake of their own interests. This is also one of the issues that poses a serious problem in the world of caricature.
Similarly, artificial intelligence affects and diminishes the creativity of the cartoonist who uses it. We can discuss and write about that problem another time. But what can we say about the issue of non-payment of prizes at festivals? The proposal would be, with the consent of all directors from countries where festivals are organized, to create an association that would take action to put an end to such occurrences. This means forming a global assembly of directors from all festivals, and that assembly could make significant decisions, such as penalizing individuals who do not adhere to festival rules. This assembly or organization would provide all individual directors with membership cards that contain details about each director. By becoming members, they would commit to fulfilling their obligations. In case of non-compliance, sanctions could be imposed, such as being placed on a blacklist, and in some cases, requesting their respective ministries to revoke their right to organize festivals for a certain period due to non-payment and failure to meet their obligations.
These directors would have their membership cards revoked and their right to organize festivals withdrawn, and with the consent of all directors, if such an organization finds itself on the blacklist, any publication about the festival on well-known websites would be prohibited. I have witnessed such cases here. It concerns the organization of a festival that was shut down precisely due to non-payment and abuse of power. The individual withdrew from the scene and ceased their activity because of the benefits they saw from non-payment of prizes.
I am speaking of a period about twenty years ago, when the internet emerged, and at a time when social media did not exist. However, the possibilities for communication are now so vast that action can be taken in this area, but with the consent and acceptance of all directors of individual festivals, who, by their membership, accept their obligations and the sanctions that follow for violating festival rules.
Director of "KrAgi" Cartoon & Art of Kosovo in Pristina 
Agim Krasniqi - KrAgi
 
 
 
 
Festivals that do not award prizes should be publicly reprimanded. If they continue in the same vein, cartoonists should be asked not to send cartoons to those festivals. I think that boycotting such festivals is the best way to make them aware that the word given must be kept!
Sincerely, Imri Musliu, HiTHi Kosova Cartoon, Ferizaj, Kosovo
 
 
 
 
 
Many times it happens that some Festivals seem reliable because they are organized by big organizations or institutions but then it happens that they do not award the winners. unfortunately it is difficult to obtain the award even after requests. therefore, I think it is necessary to produce, based on past experiences, a list of the most reliable festivals so that the cartoonist can decide whether to participate or not. Furthermore, in this way, the organizers will be encouraged to improve their festival to make it more reliable.
 
 
Marco D’Agostino
Organizing a cartoon festival is a big challenge, as it involves finances to pay the winners' consolation, run the exhibition and management. Every organizer must have experienced ups and downs.   
As everyone knows, the cost of holding a cartoon festival, competition, exhibition is not from the organizer's pocket. Behind them is a sponsor, it is the sponsor who will finance the cost. When it comes to sponsors, not all sponsors keep their promises. There are irresponsible sponsors and broken promises.
When something like this happens, the participants will blame the organizer and the organizer will be embarrassed. Often these irresponsible sponsors come from certain bodies or from among businessmen. Most of the Sponsors are from the government or agencies under them.
 Therefore, if the organizers make the first mistake, participants from all over the world should not be quick to boycott them, give the organizers a chance to improve themselves, learn from their mistakes, prepare enough money before organizing a festival, competition, cartoon exhibition.
 
 
(Rossem-Malaysia)
In my opinion, you are starting from the wrong end. What can an executive director offer cartoonists? What do you mean? What can he offer cartoonists if:
1. He was not given money.
2. He spent the money.
3. He has no desire to pay.
There are those on your list who did not pay. So what? Will they give advice? And what advice, if there is no agreement between the participants and the organizers. Participants must fulfill the conditions of the competition, and the organizers, unfortunately, may not fulfill them. Or fulfill them partially. There is no legal agreement, only a "word of honor." Advice is good, but there must be obligations. In order to force the organizers to fulfill their conditions, you have to be really nervous. This is bad. FECO and other Internet resources tried to make a "black list" of bad organizers - and so what? Nothing. If there are no levers of pressure on executive directors, then there is nothing to talk about. Do you have any ideas about "levers of pressure"? I don't. But I hope that you will have them.
Sincerely,
Konstantin Kazanchev
To answer your question, I would first like to form a committee of festival directors with a president and elected members as well. choose a logo for the association and hold internal meetings to find solutions to the problem of artists who have not received their prizes and. I am not a fan of publishing festival problems on websites because they have a negative impact on caricature festivals. Thank you very much for creating this committee.
 
Naji Benaji
 
 
As a festival organizer, the biggest task for us is to ensure that the winners' award and award money should reach the winners' accounts on time. Many times, we become helpless even without wanting to. Sometimes the rules and regulations of countries/ festivals or organizations prevent us from helping artists in this situations.
We always clearly mentioned in our festival’s rules and regulations that Because of any country's sanctions or policies, if we won’t be able to transfer the award money to artist’s account ,then we won’t be responsible. But even after that we always try to do our best to send or transfer artists award. But sometime you can’t because of govt. polices or sponsors limitations. Because I am also an artist and I understand very well how important awards and award money are for an artist. Till now I have organised 7-8 international contests, festivals and many exhibitions. Many times festivals have private sponsors, who are very difficult to convince. If the sponsor is a government organisation then you cannot go beyond the festivals rules and regulations. I personally faced two times this situation. when because of sanctions or war effected country. We were not able to transfer their award money to their account. Even u can’t send award trophy or gifts to them because there is no such courier facilities.
Being organiser it was an embarrassing situation for me. Somehow, I managed to do this with dialogue between two country’s embassies. but this is not a permanent solution and can’t be possible every time. Even if you know already that these country’s artist will face the problem to receive their award or award money, you can’t stop them to participate, which is not good for international artist community.
We all artist and festival organisers should come together and raise the voice for a solution. So, all artists can participate and enjoy the festival and art work.
 How the world political situations are changing, in future may be number of war zones or sanctions will increase and would be difficult to participate in international contests.
Same time I would like request to all artists please cross check with the festivals’ rules regulations and your country polices or sanctions, otherwise I have seen winners always blame to festival organisations. and if organisers trying to help them please support them and have Patience.
The way humanity is ending, violence and corruption are increasing in the world, we need to make more strong to our international artist community platform, This is only way to share the problem with the world and raise the voice for solutions.
As an artist and festival curator, I can share few solutions for such issues.
-       Solutions 
1-      There should be an international artist community platform registered from UN and a bank account, will have power to transfer the award or award money to winners account any country despite even its sanction or war effected. If as a festival organizer we can’t send award money directly to artist, we can transfer to this artist community account and then they can send to winners from their end.

2-      A demand should be made by the international artist community in the UN that the artist and art should not be effected from these sanctions or war zones.
3-      There should be some special possibilities or options in the festival’s  rule -regulations for artists from sanctions and war affected countries.
4-      Festivals may give more importance to fellowships, residencies and traveling to festival countries than award money.
5-      Approach to any Swiss bank or any European country bank to open an account , specially for this purpose , any country where it would be easy to deposit or transfer any country. Manage by the bank only or any artist community to support such issues. We can mention in our rules that if we won’t be able to transfer the money directly to artist we will deposit your award money to this account so artist can apply to this bank to transfer in his account .
6-      Apart from award money, let us think of other options in the festival awards.
 Above all, the artist should not forget that for his/her art and creativity are more important. Due to not being able to receive the award or award money , he/she should not stop the  participating festivals. Remember we all are a family and only voice for a common man.
Vikram Nayak

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