NORTH KOREANS PLAGIARIZE Edson Haufiku Thursday, April 10, 2014 - 08:00 TWO acclaimed heavyweights in the liberation politics, are in the centre of legal measures that could spark an unexpected controversy surrounding the unauthorised use of photographs placed in the newly opened Independence Memorial Museum. Acclaimed Namibian photographer, John Liebenberg lifted the lid on the saga, how his work was co-pied in North Korea by the builders of the monument without his consent. Liebenberg, who was vilified as a Swapo-sympathiser and the only Namibian photographer with access to PLAN soldiers in action in the northern war zone, has roped in respected Swapo-supporter from the same era and former attorney-general, Hartmut Ruppel, to institute legal proceedings against the National Archives for reportedly duplicated his works, currently on display at the Independence Memorial Museum. This was confirmed by legal counsel, Ruppel, of the law firm Lorentz&Angula. According to the veteran lawyer, Liebenberg’s litigation is to assert his rights under the terms on which the National Archive had obtained certain of his photographs some years ago, as well as his rights under the Namibian copyright law for his works. Although the litigation papers have already been served on the National Archive as the first defendant and government as the second defendant, Ruppel would not go into details about the financial magnitude of the lawsuit. Liebenberg said he is awaiting the response of the National Archives to the summons issued by his lawyer, adding that some of his photographs now on display in the Independence Memorial Museum were reprinted in North Korea by the company Mansudae Oversees Projects (MOP) that built the museum and most, if not all of Namibia’s national monuments. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1958, 56-year-old Liebenberg is one of the outstanding photographers of Southern Africa. Portraits and landscape photography are the main motifs of his work, but his captivating images in post-independent Namibia are what catapulted him to international fame. While working as a press photographer for The Namibian newspaper and Reuters, he openly disregarded the censorship regulations in South Africa and showed the horrible face of the apartheid regime of South Africa, as well as the face of the apartheid war in Namibia and Angola. Both Ruppel and Liebenberg were also targets of the dirty tricks campaign after independence as South African spies tried to discredit them. Ruppel also became the victim of a vicious gossip campaign surrounding the formation of the RDP as a hibernator and imperialist. The two stalwarts and pioneers of Swapo’s support in the white minority groups, together with the late assassinated Anton Lubowski, Namibian ambassador to Brussels Hanno Rumpf and Calle Schlettwein, lead the struggle under heavy criticism from their own communities. No comment could be gotten from the head of the national archives by late yesterday afternoon. - Additional reporting by buala.org.
Posted on: Fri, 11 Apr 2014 10:31:11 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015