2 suspended amid football walkout over deterioration; Post employees' tribute to Graham includes community ties, NAHJ votes Tuesday on whether to leave Unity; N.Y. Post writer used N-word to describe black colleague; 2 stations refuse to air "Change the Mascot" commercial; TV consolidation called "out of control," FCC blamed; Mathes leaving as GM of "most-listened-to" public station; the day South African papers were shut, groups banned (10/21/13);2 Suspended Amid Football Walkout Over Deterioration
Post Employees' Tribute to Graham Includes Community Ties
NAHJ Votes Tuesday on Whether to Leave Unity
The Day South African Papers Were Shut, Groups Banned
"One of my favourite writers on writing is an Australian, Mark Tredinnick, who says writers have a duty of care, and they owe this duty to their readers, to the cause or purpose of their writing, to their societies, to their people and to their language,"Joe Thloloe wrote Sunday for the Independent in London.
"The South African Press Code also expresses itself — rather more bluntly — on this duty: 'The press exists to serve society.'
"These are the standards by which we will look at Percy Peter Tshediso Qoboza's journalism and at journalism today, as we remember Black Wednesday — October 19, 1977 — and celebrate the freedom of expression, press freedom and the freedom of other media we inherited from the Qobozas, the Aggrey Klaastes, the Can Thembas, the Casey Motsisis, the Mike Nortons, the Mono Badelas, the Moffat Zungus, the Es’kia Mphahleles, the Nat Nakasas, the Ruth Firsts, the Lewis Nkosis, the Zwelakhe Sisulus— a long, long list of heroes that could take weeks to recite.
"Today, we remember the closure of the World, the Weekend World and the ecumenical publication Pro Veritate on that Wednesday in 1977 and we remember the banning of black organisations like the Union of Black Journalists, the South African Students Organisation, the Black People's Convention and others.
"Qoboza and Klaaste, one of his assistants at the World, and scores of other people were locked up by the security police on that day.
"Today we also reflect on the veiled threats to press freedom embedded in laws like the Protection of State Information Bill.
"But who was Percy Qoboza?
"He was a complex, multi-layered personality, as most of us are. . . . "
The National Association of Black Journalists honors a foreign journalist each year with its Percy Qoboza Award.