The essence of Paul Harris’ consummate skill as a cartoonist derives from his appreciation of the unique role of the cartoon as a vehicle for communication. Over time, he has cultivated an incremental understanding of the latitude of the cartoonist’s license, the facility which the medium offers for pushing the envelope of free public expression – further, perhaps, than any other popular communication tool can without encountering the quagmire of litigation.
If the cartoon is not entirely beyond the reach of litigation, it functions in far ampler space than the written word, posing a more formidable challenge to censorial scrutiny and in the process rolling back the limits of media freedom.
There are occasions, Paul says, when his own cartoons have walked the fine line, skirted the edges of free expression. Those experiences have taught him valuable professional lessons. Even the cartoonist’s greater freedom has its boundaries and carries with it a corresponding responsibility.
If Paul is realistic enough not to pretend that boundaries do not exist, he concedes that he relishes the challenge of testing those boundaries. His appetite for boundary riding is manifested in his contributions to the Stabroek News that have captured a range of socially and politically sensitive themes, cloaking them in an artistic style that evokes humour without compromising the essence of the comment that he seeks to make.
