By May the four-stage censorship procedure set up by emergency regulations in August last year, and tightened in January, had affected fourteen publications. In May South became the second newspaper to be temporarily closed following the closure of New Nation in March.
Since an amendment to the emergency regulations in January, the Minister of Home Affairs no longer has to indicate what form of action is being considered against a publication, or to disclose any grounds for such action. Publishers only receive a list of items under investigation and 'an indication why each item is being taken into account'.
CENSORSHIP
In May the Rand Supreme Court upheld the temporary closure of New Nation imposed for two months on 22 March, ruling that the emergency is subject to political control rather than legal judgment. Lawyers for New Nation said they would be appealing.
On 9 May South, a Cape Town community weekly, was closed until 10 June. This followed warnings against it in the Government Gazette in December 1987 and April 1988 for publishing 'subversive propaganda'. Work in Progress, a bi-monthly journal, received a similar warning in March. Saamstaan, a six-weekly community newspaper based in Oudtshoorn, and Grass-roots, a community monthly from Cape Town, were issued with gazette warnings on 15 April. A warning in the same gazette made Out of Step, the End Conscription Campaign's publication, the first publication of a political organisation to be warned. A gazette warning was issued to the Weekly Mail on 26 April and to New Era an anti-apartheid political journal on 3 June.
It was reported in April that COSATU News and Azanian Focus had reached the second stage, with requests from the Minister to submit representations. By 21 April the National Council of Trade Unions (NACTU) had ignored three requests to submit its newsletter - Izwilethu. Since October 1987 the South African Council of Churches (SACC) has refused to submit copies of its journal - Ecunews. The Minister responded in April by informing SACC that it had contravened emergency regulation 7B(4) which would render them liable to a fine of R500. The Sowetan has received a 'list' of items which the Minister found objectionable. The government media monitoring group has referred the Natal Witness to police investigation for publishing a 'subversive statement' about military conscription.
HARASSMENT
Protests and petitions from groups in South Africa and abroad condemning the government clampdown on the media culminated on 23 May in the launch of the 'Save the Press Campaign' in Cape Town. Representatives of 45 media-related groups called for the 'immediate and unconditional unbanning of all media'. They demanded the right to 'procure and disseminate information in accordance with the "principles of our discipline" without state intervention and harassment'.
Other measures have been used to constrain news reporting. On 8 March police briefly held nine television cameramen, confiscated film and, according to Mike Willis, chief of the World Television News bureau, 'manhandled' a soundman 'whilst taking him to the van'. The incident occurred as demonstrators, protesting against the Labour Relations Amendment Bill and the clampdown on anti-apartheid organisations, peacefully dispersed from the Chamber of Mines in Johannesburg.
On 30 March a driver with the Weekly Mail, who was detained on 20 March, was still in detention. On 5 February Kgalade KEKANE, the Northern Transvaal organiser of the Media Workers Association of South Africa (MWASA) was detained under emergency regulations. Documents, negatives and communications equipment were stolen from the offices of the Port Elizabeth News Agency (PEN) in May.
Since its establishment in 1983, Saamstaan has been subject to severe harassment: its offices have been petrol bombed three times, 12,000 copies of the paper have disappeared, and workers have received abusive calls. A reporter Patrick NYUKA was shot by police and charged with public violence whilst covering a reception for two political prisoners released last year. It was reported in May 1988 that a Saamstaan journalist, Mbulelo GROOTBOOM, was charged with making a 'subversive statement' and was asked to be a state witness in connection with statements made at a service for four local activists.
