Zapiro Cartoon Deemed Unfit
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Since Mike brought up Zapiro and one of his cartoons this morning, let’s continue with the cartoonist.
The Deputy Ombudsman of South Africa has found against The Daily Maverick for publishing a Zapiro cartoon.
From the Press Council regarding Solidarity and AfriForum vs Daily Maverick:
This finding is based on a written complaint on behalf of Solidarity by Mr Pieter Jordaan, its news and publicity manager, and a written complaint on behalf of AfriForum by Mr Louis Boshoff, its campaigns officer
1.1. The first panel of the cartoon features the heading, “The boys who cried wolf”, next to portraits of Kallie Kriel of AfriForum and Dirk Hermann of Solidarity. It quotes them as saying: “ANC Govt killed Afrikaans”, “Took our land”, “No jobs for whites” and “White genocide”.
- Finding
The complaint that the article is in breach of Clause 1.1 is upheld on two counts for the reasons outlined in my Analysis.
Firstly, Daily Maverick is required to retract the cartoon and to publish an apology to the complainants for breaching Clause 1.1 by incorrectly attributing the words “white genocide” to them and to Solidarity in particular for attributing the words “took our land” to it.
Secondly, the retraction and apology should…
Ombud Watcher for GroundUp further explains while questioning the censorship of satire:
The Deputy Ombudsman has directed the Daily Maverick to retract a Zapiro cartoon, publish an apology, and publish a note stating the reason for the retraction. But is the ruling going to far and censoring satire?
Titled “The Boys Who Cried Wolf”, Zapiro’s cartoon, published by the Daily Maverick on 15 February, is made up of three images. The first has small caricatures of AfriForum’s Kallie Kriel and Solidarity’s Dirk Hermann. The second has the duo braaiing while lying in shorts on loungers next to a pool, shouting “Wolf!” while being served cocktails by a black domestic worker. And the third has a wolf, sporting a Trump-like hairstyle, biting a map of South Africa, saying, “You called!”
What appears to have offended Solidarity was the substance of the cry, in particular the words “Took our Land” and “White Genocide”. AfriForum appears to have taken offence only at the use of the phrase “White Genocide”.
What leaves this commentator uneasy is the fact that AfriForum’s official view is that white Afrikaner farmers are deliberately being murdered because of who they are, with the government being accused of both letting this happen and systematically attacking the existence of white people by virtue of its intention to redistribute their land. Why is it impermissible, in a satirical cartoon, to label such a view as a call for white genocide?
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