Political cartoonist Zunar has been selected as the first Malaysian to take part in Amnesty International’s Write for Rights (#W4R) campaign.

#W4R 2015 is touted as Amnesty International’s biggest global campaign that attracts hundreds of thousands of activists to act on behalf of those being persecuted.

Amnesty International Malaysia executive director Shamini Darshni said Zunar was selected after he was charged with sedition nine times, for nine different tweets.

Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, whose nom de plume is Zunar, said the charges, which might see him jailed for up to 43 years, inspired him to continue speaking out.

"I want people abroad to understand Malaysian politics and, through my cartoons, to see how bad the state of human rights in Malaysia is," Zunar ( photo ) said at a press conference in Petaling Jaya today.

In conjunction with the #W4R campaign, AI Malaysia is also organising a social media campaign to raise awareness about freedom of expression.

"Malaysians can doodle about what they think of freedom of expression here, and post it on Instagram with the hashtags #zunar #W4R and #lakarmybebas," Shamini said.

She added those hashtags can also be used to send supportive messages through Twitter.

Besides being investigated for allegedly seditious tweets, Zunar has also been investigated for the comics he has produced and has had several of his books banned.

His latest book 'Sapuman - Man of Steal' has also fallen into the sedition dragnet, with a webmaster working for Zunar's online store having been called in for questioning by police on Monday.

Zunar said the investigating officer from Bukit Aman is the same officer who has handled several of the cases against him.