The Covid-19 pandemic has weakened press freedom within many repressive regimes, mechanically fueling disinformation.
This is in essence what Gado, a Tanzanian press illustrator, suggests, which stages a fake news pump fueled by dictators in a hurry to crush journalists under the cogs of totalitarian power.
According to the 2021 report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), published in April, press freedom is now "totally or partially blocked" in more than 130 countries around the world. The NGO has indeed found that the Covid-19 pandemic presented "a form of opportunity for states which have been able to restrict press freedom". It has thus exacerbated the repression in the most muzzled countries such as Saudi Arabia or Syria.
Gado made his caricature debut at the age of 15 and then went on to freelance for The Daily News, The Business Times, and The Express.
In 1992 he worked for the Nation Media Group and published his cartoons in the Daily Nation, the largest newspaper in East and Central Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya.
In 1999, Gado was voted Kenyan Cartoonist of the Year.
In May 2016, in Geneva, he received the Cartooning for Peace prize.
Cartooning for Peace is an international network of cartoonists committed to promoting, through the universality of press cartoons, freedom of expression, human rights and mutual respect between populations of different cultures or beliefs.
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