Special Report Transcript Episode 66, Section 1, Time 21:23

During this week’s hearings many men and one woman placed the role of mainstream newspapers during the 60s, 70s and 80s under a harsh spotlight. As the former editor of the newspaper Vrye Weekblad I also made a submission. There were blunt accusations that racism ran unchecked through the news rooms owned by the white press barons, that the mainstream press kept crucial information away from South Africans and more, that they had actively colluded with an increasingly repressive government. The newspaper bosses who spoke were not from the old order, but they spoke on behalf of the old. There were apologies, but there was insistence too that they had a big part in the breakdown of apartheid.

Notes: Max du Preez