Cartoon controversies: law student views about free speech and Zapiro’s satirisation of South Africa’s president
Date
2017-05-22
Authors
Bronstein, V.
Glaser, D.
Werbeloff, M.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Abstract
Although the Constitutional Court has been a protector of freedom
of expression, major controversies about speech illustrate
deep divisions among South Africans. This article explores attitudes
of law students at the University of the Witwatersrand to
freedom of expression. The authors take the realist view that
these students are future legal interpreters of the Constitution
and their attitudes may well have an impact on future jurisprudence.
They follow-up previous research which measured attitudes
to political freedom of expression by asking students about their
responses to a sample of Zapiro cartoons depicting President
Zuma. After exploring the role of cartoons in a democracy, the article
looks at new data obtained by questioning final year students
about the same cartoons four years after the initial study. The
new data substantially confirms earlier results which indicate that
Wits students would not robustly support Zapiro’s right to create
his more controversial caricatures. This result reinforces the view
that supporters of freedom of expression in South Africa may not
be able to call upon consistent or robust elite and popular support
in resisting banning or criminalisation of speech.
Description
Keywords
Censorship, Media, Freedom of expression
Citation
Bronstein, V.,Glaser, D. and Werbeloff, M. 2017. Cartoon controversies: law student views about free speech and Zapiro’s satirisation of South Africa’s president. South African Journal on Human Rights 33(2), pp. 214–235