Censorship Of Terror And The Struggle For Freedom: Case Study

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The case study Censorship of Terror and the Struggle for Freedom instantly starts as a focus on the censorship of media in South Africa. The author introduces the history of censorship in journalism. The author introduces where censorship began with its official grassroots of which was a 50 year long period in which the national party came in to power. This party enacted law which forced censorship on to the South African press. However, the entire focus on the article is not on state sponsored censorship, but on the censorship of journalists by individual political parties, organizations, and terrorist groups.
The author describes censorship of terror as a form of informal censorship that came about during 1989. Journalist, in particular newspaper journalists were subjected to intimidation and terroristic threats. The author obtained his information through observation, interviews, and literature pertaining to the subject. It was not possible to discuss information about the interviewees because of the sensitive nature of the subject. The established …show more content…

Many of these journalists were expected to belong to specific political organizations. Any reports events that went against these political groups were met with hostility and violence. Often these journalists were treated as traitors and were punished severely. The circulation of these newspapers was also affected by this intimidation. Newspaper vendors were said to have been attacked if they did not sell only the right kind of newspaper.
The conclusion of this case study focused on what was going on involving censorship in South Africa. It explained how South Africa “would probably be confronted with an authoritarian and/or development media model in the long run.” The author went on to reiterates the problems with censorship and how it affects South Africa’s future. However, he failed to come up with any solutions to the problems his country

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