Wednesday, July 12, 2006

I should be careful how I title this, I could be sued

Reporters sans Frontières warns Zuma over lawsuit

Good for them! I am slightly worried to write more, as I have R00.00 in my bank account and I cannot afford to be sued. I already am working my cute little ass off just to stay out of debt.

If you haven't heard about this, our ex-vice President is suing The Star, The Citizen, Sunday Sun, Sunday Times, Sunday Independent, Sunday World and Rapport, from Radio Highveld Stereo [94.7 Highveld Stereo] and Zapiro as he believes they defamed his character during the rape trial where he was found 'Not Guilty'. Please Note: that doesn't mean "Innocent". (Shit, was I allowed to publically type that!?)

"The Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has warned African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma that he is setting a bad example for African dictators with his defamation lawsuit against the media. "A successful lawsuit by you would give a blank cheque to Africa's authoritarian regimes, which would use your example to attack their own press," the organisation said on Tuesday in an open letter it had written to South Africa's former deputy president.

...that should the mechanisms that ensure pluralism and free expression seize up in South Africa, it would put the entire region's press in danger.

..."If you think you have been defamed, then it is entirely legitimate that you should seek compensation. But in our view you have not chosen the right way to go about it, and you are liable to do further harm to your image rather than restore it," RSF said.

"The exorbitant amounts in damages that you are demanding from the media seem more like an attempt to intimidate them than the response of an injured party," read the letter to Zuma from the organisation.

If he does somehow pull this off though and win vast sums of cash, baby watch the papers for crazy attempts by me to get some bad publicity and then sue the lot of them... And who said there were no ways to get rich quick!

10 comments:

fly said...

he.....is.....such....a....wanker...

Champagne Heathen said...

And so I wish he would just have kept it to wanking. It would have saved the nation a whole lot of headaches, let alone the woman in exile thanks to this situation.

To play on a saying, "If you having nothing nice to 'do', keep it to yourself".

Anonymous said...

To think, he might be our president one day!

Champagne Heathen said...

Ah, Dave, you know just how to sweet talk this girl...Nearly gives me a heart attack each time I think about that possibility. I am holding out for the following court case to knock him out of the running!

fly said...

And to think he will be president....sadly, I dont think there is much of a "might" in there....

And I agree with you Champs....hopefully something will happen...but I cant honestly see it... :o(

Peas on Toast said...

That man is basically suing the entire press contingent of this country. Either he has too much time on his hands (now that he's out of office, perhaps), or he has some degenerative diseases that affects the logical side of his cerebral cortex. He'll never get away with it. At best, The Citizen may take a hammering, but that's about it.

Champagne Heathen said...

Fly - I have no response. I am all for the ostrich-head-in-the-sand approach on this one!

Peas - What did The Citizen do to take flack?

My lawyer connections were saying that he is just being stupid as he will have to prove they were wrong about how they portrayed him, rather than them prove they were right. So as long as none of them actually came out and said/drew that he raped the woman, they should be safe.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps there is a small case of projection here.
Let us not forget how well Zuma made his own name messy...

Champagne Heathen said...

Ah yes, anything to avoid responsibility. How "politician" of him!

Peas on Toast said...

The Citizen didn't do anything, but they'll probably get a hammering just because they're the Citizen.