SOUTH AFRICA: South Africa's former deputy president, Jacob Zuma, has lodged a record €14 million defamation suit against Independent Newspapers over its coverage of his recent rape trial.
Newspapers attached to the Dublin-based media consortium said the company, and its South African staff, had received a demand for 125 million rand (€13.9 million) for a series of articles and cartoons that supposedly "injured" Mr Zuma's dignity and reputation.
The politician, who was reappointed deputy president of the African National Congress - but not of the country - following his acquittal in the rape case, has appointed a high-powered legal team to fight what he has described as his "crucifixion by the media".
As well as suing a number of opinion columnists, Mr Zuma is seeking damages from South Africa's leading satirical cartoonist, Jonathan Shapiro, who contributes illustrations to a number of media groups under the pen name Zapiro.
Some of the offending cartoons lampoon Mr Zuma's admission in court that he took a shower after having had sex with the complainant because he believed it would reduce the risk of him contracting HIV.
In one cartoon, published shortly after Mr Zuma's acquittal, the politician is shown emerging from the courthouse with a shower pouring water on his head, firing sperm from a machine-gun and with a bottle of baby-oil strapped to his thigh. "My credibility is intact," the caricatured Mr Zuma declares.
Independent Newspapers, the international group controlled by Sir Anthony O'Reilly, is the largest newspaper publisher in South Africa, owning 14 titles.
A Johannesburg pop radio station is also being sued by Mr Zuma.