CYRIL RAMAPHOSA
A FREE PRESS is among the most significant dividends of our democracy, yet it is one that we perhaps take the most for granted.
On Wednesday, we will observe Media Freedom Day in South Africa, marking the events of 19 October 1977 and what became known as Black Wednesday.
This was when the apartheid regime banned The World, Weekend World and The Voice newspapers, arrested the legendary The World editor Percy Qoboza and scores of activists, and outlawed several Black Consciousness organisations.
In South Africa barely 45 years ago, the very practice of journalism was seen as a threat to the stability of the state.
In reflecting on how things have changed since the advent of democracy the real-time barometer on global press freedom published by Reporters without Borders (RSF) is instructive.
At the bottom of each country report is an infographic detailing abuses of journalists.
One considers
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