Media release: Jane Kelsey
Friday 28 September 2012

Having Fun with the TPP: National Cartoon Competition Launched

The 16th round of the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations will be held in Auckland from 3-12 December, presumably at Sky City as that was the venue of the December 2010 round.

A Trans-Pacific Partnership Cartoon Competition has been launched to encourage the country’s satirists and graphic artists to engage creatively with the many issues.

“The TPP is a cartoonist’s dream: secret negotiations, big Phrma vs. PHARMAC, tobacco wars, te Tiriti vs. corporate treaties, US-China power struggles, Fonterra = NZ Inc., more backroom deal-making at Sky City, criminalised librarians, and internet users…,” according to Jane Kelsey, who has organised the competition.

The co-sponsors are Scoop Independent News (publishers of Scoop.co.nz), the Society of Authors, the Bruce Jesson Foundation and BizDojo, who will also host an exhibition of the cartoons in Auckland during the negotiation.

The competition offers three prizes of $500.
1. A Best Cartoon award will be judged by prominent journalist Finlay Macdonald.
2. The People’s Choice award will be voted for online using Facebook; and
3. The bizdojo co space is sponsoring a special student’s award, which will give the winner a scholarship to use their facilities.

Overseas artists are welcome to contribute, but will not be eligible for the prizes.

All the entries will be exhibited online at the newly launched It’s Our Future (http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz) website, and in the exhibition space at BizDojo in Karangahape Rd, Auckland from 1 to 7 December.

Artists will be asked to release their cartoons for use under Creative Commons license and once entered may be used on Scoop.co.nz as part of its coverage of the TPPA negotiations ( see also: http://community.scoop.co.nz/category/tppa/ )

Artists entering the competition can elect whether to allow their cartoons to be auctioned on-line. Proceeds from this will support the competition and It’s Our Future campaign.

Entries should be sent via It’s Our Future website, which also hosts information and links on the TPPA and its implications for New Zealand.

Ends.

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