- Title: SOUTH AFRICA: GOVERNMENT IMPOSES UNPRECEDENTED CENSORSHIP ON MEDIA.
- Date: 11th December 1986
- Summary: Star headline; ("Censorship")
- Embargoed: 26th December 1986 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: South Africa, South Africa
- City:
- Country: South Africa
- Topics: Communications,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA88GOBLPX4T6H9SVITZGWPSTQ6
- Aspect Ratio:
- Story Text: South Africa imposed new censorship regulations on December 11 that will require the media to submit news on sensitive issues to senior officials for clearance. The proclamation, published in the Government Gazette, raised an international storm of criticism, with anti-apartheid groups planning more protest before the end of the month. On the evening of December 10, some 400 people of all races lit candles in a darkened Cape Town cathedral to pray for peace, for young white conscripts and for detainees and their families. The service was organised by the 'End Conscription' campaign, many of whose white activists have been detained, to mark International Human Rights Day. The following day, members of the Black Sash Women's civil rights organization, in Johannesburg, marched on a local jail where children are being held to deliver Christmas presents. According to the police, 256 children, aged 11 to 15, are being held under a national state of emergency aimed at stamping out political unrest in South Africa. Opposition groups say the figure is at least six times higher. Under the new press restrictions, only officials statements or reports authorised by a Cabinet Minister, deputy minister of government spokesman may be published about police action or protests, such as black consumer boycotts and school strikes against apartheid. The new regulations toughen curbs introduced last June by State President P.W. Botha. Since then, an estimated 20,000 government opponents have been detained without trial. The government's ten-page proclamation empowers Home Affairs Minister Stoffel Botha to ban publications or to import of periodicals if he deems this in the interest of public safety. Censorship will prevent the media from reporting the effectiveness of protests planned by dissident groups for the pre-Christmas period. The new regulations also ban newspapers from publishing blank spaces to indicate to readers that they have been censored. Reports of anti-conscription actions are also banned, of statements by which compulsory military service is undermined. The new restrictions were criticised by opponents of the apartheid regime in South Africa. Member of Parliament Mrs. Helen Suzman called the new measures as disaster, and warned that South Africa was on the road to totalitarianism, Mrs. Winnie Mandela, speaking in Soweto, said she had no doubt the measures heralded greater violence in her country. Her feelings were echoed in South African morning newspapers. Just before the new regulations came into effect, many accused the government of police state tactics.
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