Special Report Transcript Episode 66, Section 1, Time 00:28

Hello. We as journalists have been reporting on the appearances of activists, guerrillas, soldiers and policemen before the Truth Commission week after week the last 18 months, but we ourselves could not escape the wide net of the Truth Commission because they are supposed to get as detailed a picture as possible of what went wrong in South Africa’s past. For three days this week the Truth Commission focused on the media during the apartheid years. If we had done our jobs properly would people today have been able to say about the horrors of apartheid ‘we did not know?’ Tonight we report on ourselves. We take a look at the SABC’s role as chief propagandists of the state, the police spies who infiltrated newspapers, the experiences of black journalists in a white dominated environment and the response of the media bosses. Let’s look at the SABC first. Television came to South Africa only in 1976. While the rest of the world was enthralled by the magic box the National Party government of the 1960s believed television would undermine the morality of the nation. Perhaps they were right. The old SABC did untold damage to our nation through the propaganda that was dished out on the screen. It became, not the voice of the people, but his master’s voice.

Notes: Max du Preez

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