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A controversial cartoon of US tennis star Serena Williams, widely condemned as "racist" and "sexist", has not violated media standards, said a watchdog of the Australian press.
The artwork, published in the Melbourne Herald Sun tabloid on September 10, showed Williams overweight, with full lips and bushy hair, trampling his broken tennis racket with a lollipop on the floor, as the referee asked him. Naomi Osaka, the final opponent of the US Open, "Can you let her win?"
The Australian Press Council has received several complaints about Cartoonist Mark Knight's caricature, fearing that Williams' portrayal has features that make it an offensive and sexist portrayal of an athlete and a prejudicial racial stereotype of the African-American people .
After the court ruling, the council said Monday that the caricature did not violate press standards "to cause substantial offense, distress or harm".
"The Board considers that the cartoon uses exaggeration and absurdity to argue its point of view, but accepts the statement of the editor that she does not represent Miss Williams as a monkey, but presents it as "spewing the dummy", a non-racist caricature well known to people, Australian readers, "said the council, using an Australian phase for an angry child.
"No race"
The media control body acknowledged that some readers had found the illustration shocking, but he added that the behavior and sportsmanship aroused "enough public interest in" 39, a major conflict between a top tennis player and a referee in the US Open final ".
Williams, who rivaled Australian athlete Margaret Court's record with 24 singles titles, lost to the 20-year-old Japanese-Haitian in New York after a heated dispute with umpire Carlos Ramos as a result Code violations. in it be penalized a game.
Serena Williams stupidly tries to shame white shame. Mark Knight's cartoon is rid of racism by the board of directors. It seems that she is only a rich and spoiled brat woman. Nothing to do with the breed whatsoever pic.twitter.com/UyDsH1tWrl
– David Taylor (@ davidta35736423) February 25, 2019
An indignant Williams defended herself forcefully, denying having cheated and calling the referee a "liar" and "thief".
"You owe me an apology," said Williams, arguing over the violation. "I have never cheated in my life!"
Williams, who was fined $ 17,000 for the three violations of the code, said after the match that male players were required to meet lower standards of conduct in court.
At the time, Knight – who has a reputation for controversial cartoons – said that the turmoil around the caricature was a sign that the "world just went crazy".
"The drawing on Serena talks about her bad behavior that day, not race," he said.
The Herald Sun, a conservative tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, reprinted the drawing two days after the initial publication with the title "Welcome to PC World" in reference to political correctness.
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Williams broke his racket and called the referee a "thief" and "liar" during the US Open final [Danielle Parhizkaran/USA TODAY SPORTS/Reuters] |
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
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