Controversial Serena cartoon didn’t breach press standards

Canberra : Australia's media watchdog on Monday ruled that a widely criticised cartoon showing tennis legend Serena Williams jumping next to a broken racket and a pacifier which she had spat, did not breach press standards.

The Australian Press Council ruled that the drawing, published by the Melbourne-based Herald Sun newspaper, was instead capturing Williams' "on-court tantrum" at the 2018 US Open final "using satire, caricature, exaggeration and humour", CNN reported.

The cartoon by the daily's award-winning cartoonist, Mark Knight, was published shortly after the bad-tempered final, in which Williams had a dispute with the umpire over his allegedly sexist treatment.

The press watchdog received a number of complaints about the image, which drew international condemnation.

The Press Council said the newspaper "was depicting the moment when, in a highly animated tantrum, Williams smashed a racquet and loudly abused the chair umpire, calling him a thief, a liar and threatening that he would never umpire her matches again".

"(The Herald Sun) said it wanted to capture the on-court tantrum of Williams using satire, caricature, exaggeration and humour, and the cartoon intended to depict her behaviour as childish by showing her spitting a pacifier out while she jumps up and down," it added.