"Freedom" in South Africa

Heavily criticized abroad for its repressive policy of apartheid, the South African government takes its points of pride where it can find them. For years it has proudly pointed to the country's free press. But freedom ends at the racial barrier. Laurence Gandar, editor in chief of Johannesburg's Rand Daily Mail, has long been one of the few resident journalists bold enough to prod gently for gradual integration of the black majority. His reasoned crusading earned him the wide respect of foreign colleagues and the disfavor of the government for the past dozen years.

Disfavor turned to harassment in 1965, when Mail Reporter Benjamin Pogrund wrote a series of articles exposing brutality and unhygienic living conditions in South Africa's jails. Gandar editorially demanded an inquiry. Instead, the government set up perjury trials for the ex-prisoners who had been interviewed. Four were convicted, and served sentences of up to 18 months. Then, Pogrund and Gandar were arrested under a law that makes it a crime to publish information about prisons without taking "reasonable steps" to verify accuracy.

During his eight-month trial, Gandar argued that he had corroborated the stories before publishing them and spoke of his paper's disclosures as being "in accordance with the role of the free press throughout the world." Surprise Witness William Rees-Mogg, editor of the London Times, praised Gandar's integrity and argued that "newspapers are concerned about people unable to defend their own interests."

All of this related only peripherally to the prosecution, which actually seemed to be based on Gandar's past op position to racial policies and the fact that the prison stories had been picked up by the foreign press. Editors, argued the prosecutor, should refrain from publishing material that might embarrass the government abroad.

Last week, after taking more than a month to write a decision that required seven hours to read (with time out for two tea breaks), the judge delivered his verdict: guilty of failing to take "reasonable steps" to verify the stories. Pogrund's sentence was suspended; Gandar paid a $280 fine rather than spend three months in jail.

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