S. Africa Tightens Information Curbs
The Bureau for Information--the only authorized source of information about racial unrest and the actions of security forces--imposed additional limits Thursday on how it will distribute reports.
Starting today, the bureau said, it will respond only to media inquiries received by telex and “then only when in possession of all salient and verified facts,” a bureau spokesman said in a statement.
The bureau had operated a 24-hour service to answer reporters’ telephone inquiries.
That policy was ended because “we are not willing to put out reports that are going to be changed about 15 minutes later,” bureau deputy chief Caspar Venter said. “Telephonic responses to media inquiries will be given only in exceptional cases, such as acts of terror.”
The bureau, set up when President Pieter W. Botha imposed a nationwide state of emergency June 12, will continue to issue daily press bulletins.
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