In this week's broadcast, we delve into the 'ninth art', as Madrid hosted the second edition of its comic book fair last week. We visited the fair and spoke to attendees and exhibitors, including Jesús Marugán, owner of Akira Comics, and to Laura Barrachina, curator of the cultural programme. After the fair, we were joined by Marta Kayser, an author who has just published her first graphic novel, La fábrica de papel, the result of a seven-year investigation into her family history, which has changed both her personal and professional life.
We will also discuss the protection of digital rights, a major concern for governments worldwide due to the rise of artificial intelligence and the risks of social networks. To address these issues, Casa de América recently organized a roundtable discussion in Madrid under the title Digital Rights: A Necessary Dialogue Between the EU and Canada.
During the event, we learnt how these issues are being addressed in Canada from Jeffrey Marder, the Canadian Ambassador to Spain, and Karim Benyekhlef, a professor and the Director of the Cyberjustice Laboratory at the University of Montreal. We also heard the Spanish perspective from Eduard Blasi, a lawyer specialising in digital rights and artificial intelligence.
Finally, we address the war in the Middle East, where Lebanon is facing a new and deadly escalation as Israeli strikes intensify across the country, forcing the Lebanese army to withdraw from several villages in the South. Our collaborator in Lebanon, Elsa Yazbek Charabati, gives us the details.
