President Jacob Zuma’s animosity towards the South African media was forged in three stages.The initial conflict was born of a confrontation with the National Prosecuting Authority in 2003. At the time, director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka privately briefed a group of black editors against Zuma before declaring that, while he believed the state had a "prima facie" case against him, it was not confident enough in its evidence to proceed to court.At the time, Zuma said: "This was definitely no ordinary media briefing; it was a character assassination exercise." It has stayed with him ever since.Reflecting on it in 2007, he reminisced, "I believe that we will never truly know just how much that event altered the course of the history of our country. Generally, we have a situation where some journalists have become active participants in the events unfolding in the country. The end result is the blurring of the lines between fact and opinion."The second instalment came in 20...
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