RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. In South Africa, a ventriloquist is challenging a gag order against his puppet. The country's most famous Afrikaans singer, Steve Hofmeyr, obtained the court order after a series of tweets from the puppet's Twitter account accused the musician of racism. Satirist Conrad Koch denies that his puppet, Chester Missing, engaged in hate speech. When asked why someone takes a puppet to court, Chester Missing tweeted, you need to be a dummy. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.