The first week of studies at the School of Advanced Journalism ended with a new course on the role of caricatures in the media, held by artist Sergiu Tomsa. They discussed about the impact of caricatures in the media and the ethical principles of 'journalistic visuals'.

According to Sorina Stefarta, SAJ Director, the idea of holding this course came up in response to the attack on the office of the satire magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris in January 2015, which brought caricature in the world's focus. 'Not all societies' enjoy caricatures. The shooting of several artists for sharing their views has rekindled the debate about the limits of the freedom of expression, which is a topic you will be discussing more than once this year,' told Sorina Stefarta. She noted that there was a sparsity of caricatures in Moldovan media and the newspapers that still publish them do so either guided by their ambition or by their enthusiasm. Things are as they are, although the message delivered through an image can often be ten times stronger.'

The students were particularly interested in the ethical aspects of caricatures; they wanted to discuss how far can one go by publishing such art and whether it is a good thing when the cartoonist is subjective in his art. Sergiu Tomsa stressed that 'a caricature can be both humorous and satirical. It can stir both negative and positive emotions, depending on the perception of the viewer. That is why sometimes such cases as Charlie Hebdo's occur.'

The course on the role of caricatures in the media is one of several new courses at SAJ in the academic year 2015-2016; it is financed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) through the project 'Professional Media as the Guarantee of a Sustainable Democracy'.