Scott Bieser is a libertarian cartoonist with a delightful sense of humor and style; check him out for yourself through his on-line graphic novel "Roswell, Texas" -- available here. In a May 29 post on this site (entitled CartoonBomb the Dutch Ministry of Justice), I reprinted the news item, Following the arrest in Holland of a free lance cartoonist last week, the head of the Federation of Cartoonists Organizations (FECO), the largest cartooning organization in the world, called on cartoonists all over the world to send their cartoons, all their cartoons new and old, to the Dutch Ministry of Justice.

Scott obliged by sending the "entire inventory of web-friendly image files for A Drug War Carol to the Dutch Censorship Office" and asking for official approval. Did I mention his humor and style?

Yesterday, the Dutch Ministry of Justice -- the Dutch prosecutor more specifically -- responded to Scott. The email is reprinted in the extended text.

Subject: Re: Are these cartoons to be allowed? <<#11884-9796#>>Dear Mr Bieser,

Thank you for your email, in which you ask us to judge your cartoon.

The Public Prosecution Service is unable to comply with your request. The Public Prosecution Service can't indicate beforehand if publication of your cartoon will be considered a criminal offence, as it doesn't come into play until after a criminal offence has been committed. For information on whether ot not your cartoon complies with Dutch law it is best to obtain legal advice from a lawyer. You can find addresses of lawyers through the website http://www.alleadvocaten.nl

With kind regards,
Maggy van Luyn
Public Information Officer

Scott comments "Apparently 'bad cartoons' can't be defined until after they're published and a prosecutor decides to go beat up the cartoonist. And to think I once considered moving to Amsterdam..."