{"id":15947,"date":"2012-10-28T20:06:50","date_gmt":"2012-10-28T18:06:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/10\/update-1-south-africas-zuma-drops-suit-over-rape-cartoon\/"},"modified":"2012-10-28T20:06:50","modified_gmt":"2012-10-28T18:06:50","slug":"update-1-south-africas-zuma-drops-suit-over-rape-cartoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/update-1-south-africas-zuma-drops-suit-over-rape-cartoon\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE 1-South Africa&#8217;s Zuma drops suit over rape cartoon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Four-year-old legal battle comes to an end<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Critics say president has tried to muzzle media<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Zuma&#8217;s office worried about limiting free speech<\/p>\n<p> (Adds comment from Zuma&#8217;s office)<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Jon Herskovitz<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>JOHANNESBURG, Oct 28 (Reuters) &#8211; South African President<br \/>\nJacob Zuma intends to drop a four-year-old lawsuit claiming<br \/>\nnearly $600,000 in damages from a cartoonist who depicted him<br \/>\npoised to rape &#8220;Lady Justice&#8221;, his office said on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Sunday Times, named as a defendant in the case, also<br \/>\nsaid it had reached agreement with Zuma&#8217;s lawyers for the suit<br \/>\nand all claims to be ended.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The president &#8230; would like to avoid setting a legal<br \/>\nprecedent that may have the effect of limiting the public<br \/>\nexercise of free speech, with the unforeseen consequences this<br \/>\nmay have on our media, public commentators and citizens,&#8221; his<br \/>\noffice said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>It added that it still saw the cartoon as an affront to the<br \/>\ndignity of the president.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The civil case had been due to start on Monday. Under the<br \/>\nsettlement, Zuma will pay part of the legal costs of the<br \/>\ndefendants, his office said.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>* Four-year-old legal battle comes to an end * Critics say president has tried to muzzle media * Zuma&#8217;s office worried about limiting free speech (Adds comment from Zuma&#8217;s office) By Jon Herskovitz JOHANNESBURG, Oct 28 (Reuters) &#8211; South African President Jacob Zuma intends to drop a four-year-old lawsuit claiming nearly $600,000 in damages from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-15947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15947\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}