“Total Onslaught” against the Press

Abstract

The persistent tensions between the ruling National party and the press are rooted in South Africa’s turbulent history of long-standing economic, ethnic, and political cleavages. The press, reflecting as it does the clashing views and political differences within the Republic, becomes inextricably enmeshed in the news and comments it reports and, in so doing, becomes the target of repressive efforts designed to resist change. For as the South African government comes under increasing pressures from opponents of apartheid at home and abroad, so does freedom of expression within South Africa diminish.