Zuma Vs The Media
As a backlash to the frenzied media following of his rape trial, Zuma filed a series of defamation lawsuits on 30 June 2006 against various South African media outlets for publishing content that allegedly besmirched his public profile, in the form of cartoons, commentary, photos and parody pieces. The media outlets that came under fire were The Star for R 20 million, Rapport for R 10 million, Highveld Stereo for R 6 million, The Citizen for R 5 million, Sunday Sun for R 5 million, Sunday Independent for R 5 million, and Sunday World for R 5 million.
Zuma appointed Former Conservative Party MP advocate Jurg Prinsloo, as well as Wycliffe Mothuloe to tackle his so-called "crucifixion by the media". Zuma said:
For a period of five years my person has been subjected to all types of allegations and innuendo, paraded through the media and other corridors of influence without these allegations having being tested. I have thereby been denied my constitutional right to reply and defend myself.
The response from the challenged media was highly critical, and written protests to various media outlets accused Zuma of challenging their freedom of speech.
Zuma was parodied further in an advertisement for Pronto Condoms, using his famous shower statement.
In 2012, Zuma featured in a satirical painting by Cape Town-based artist Brett Murray, who depicted him in his painting The Spear, in a pose similar to Lenin, but with his genitals exposed. The ANC responded by threatening court action against the gallery showing the painting, and further demanding that the image should be removed from online sources. The subsequent aggressive sharing of the image through social networks can be considered a form of the Streisand Effect. On 22 May 2012, the painting was vandalized while it was hanging in an art gallery in Johannesburg. The face and genitals of Zuma were painted over.
Read more about this topic: Jacob Zuma
Famous quotes containing the word media:
“One can describe a landscape in many different words and sentences, but one would not normally cut up a picture of a landscape and rearrange it in different patterns in order to describe it in different ways. Because a photograph is not composed of discrete units strung out in a linear row of meaningful pieces, we do not understand it by looking at one element after another in a set sequence. The photograph is understood in one act of seeing; it is perceived in a gestalt.”
—Joshua Meyrowitz, U.S. educator, media critic. “The Blurring of Public and Private Behaviors,” No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behavior, Oxford University Press (1985)