Newspapers’ Blank Spaces Called Subversive Comment by Pretoria

The blank spaces that South African newspapers have been publishing to draw their readers’ attention to the severe restrictions on the press under the new state of emergency here have themselves been deemed “subversive comment” by the Pretoria government.

The Sowetan, the country’s largest black-edited newspaper, which had one issue seized last week, said it would “now fill the (blank) spaces with the most innocuous of writings” to avoid further police action against it.

In its editorial column, which had been left empty in recent days except for a one-paragraph protest against the government’s restrictions, the paper on Friday said simply, “No comment.” It filled the rest of the space with a photograph of the late Chief Albert Luthuli, who as president of the outlawed African National Congress, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1961.

The Weekly Mail, a liberal tabloid that was also seized last week, appeared on Friday with nearly two-thirds of its stories censored by its own lawyers, who blacked out words, phrases and paragraphs, and withdrew two articles entirely to comply with the emergency regulations.

Under the emergency regulations, reporters are prohibited from covering any incidents of unrest, from reporting the actions of the police or army except as released by the government, from quoting any “subversive statements” and from making any themselves. Newsmen are also barred from visiting any black township, even if they live there, to gather news or just report on a soccer match. The regulations apply to both South African and foreign journalists.

Additional restrictions were imposed Friday when the government’s information bureau, the sole authorized source of news on the civil strife here, said newsmen could no longer ask questions at its daily briefings unless the queries had been supplied four hours in advance or related directly to the bureau’s statements of the day. Foreign radio and television crews were told in addition that, to prevent the broadcast of “subversive statements,” they could no longer do live interviews, except with government officials.

The Newspaper Press Union is attempting to have the restrictions relaxed, and one editor suggested Friday that ending the embarrassing white spaces may be part of a deal that lets journalists resume firsthand coverage of at least some of the country’s continuing civil strife.