Multi award-winning Star cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro, aka Zapiro, has added another feather to his cap, reports www.iol.co.za

He has bagged the prestigious 2006-2007 Cartoonists Rights Network Institute's Award for Courage in Editorial Cartooning, which was presented to him at a dinner in Washington on Friday.

According to a CRNI press release, the award is given to a cartoonist who "faces great danger as a result of his or her professional work".

Last year's winners were Algerian cartoonist Ali Dilem and the 12 Danish cartoonists who published a range of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a terrorist in a Danish newspaper, Jyllands Posten.

And the CRNI didn't stop with presenting Zapiro with an award: it offered its considerable influence to the ongoing legal battle between the cartoonist and former deputy president Jacob Zuma .

In a letter dated June 23, CRNI executive director Robert Russell called on Zuma to reconsider his R15-million defamation suit against Zapiro.

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