Vic Alhadeff was chief sub-editor of The Cape Times, Cape Town’s daily newspaper, during the apartheid era. It was a staunchly anti-apartheid newspaper, and the government had enacted a draconian system of laws to govern and restrict what media could say. The effect was that anti-apartheid activists such as Mandela were not 'merely’ imprisoned, they were also banned, as was the African National Congress. Under the law, it was illegal to quote a banned person or organisation. This meant if there was to be an anti-apartheid rally in the city – and we reported it – it could be construed as promoting the aims of a banned organisation. As chief sub-editor, I had to navigate this minefield. In addition, most English-language newspapers were anti-apartheid and had a resident police spy on staff (one of our senior journalists); on a number of occasions I would receive a call from the Magistrate’s Office after the newspaper had gone to print at midnight, putting an injunction on a story. We would have to call back the trucks and dump the 100,000 copies of the newspaper and reprint. The challenge was to inform readers as what was happening and to speak out against apartheid – without breaking the law. South Africa had its own Watergate equivalent. The apartheid government understood that English speakers generally were anti-apartheid, so it siphoned 64 million rands from the Defence budget and set up the Information Department. The aim was to purchase media outlets overseas which would be pro-apartheid, and it set up an English-language newspaper in South Africa, to be pro-apartheid. It was called The Citizen – and I was offered a job as deputy editor at double my salary, plus an Audi. (I declined the offer, for the record). Two journalists uncovered the scandal, and brought down the Prime Minister.

中文翻译：

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南非种族隔离政权时期的新闻业

种族隔离时代，维克·阿勒哈迪夫（Vic Alhadeff）是开普敦日报《开普时报》的首席编辑。这是一本坚决反对种族隔离的报纸，政府已经制定了严厉的法律体系来管理和限制媒体的言论。结果是像曼德拉这样的反种族隔离激进分子不仅被“监禁”，而且被禁止，非洲人大也被禁止。根据法律，引用被禁止的人或组织是非法的。这意味着，如果在该城市举行反种族隔离的集会（我们已经报道过），则可以解释为促进了被禁止组织的目标。作为首席副编辑，我不得不浏览这个雷区。此外，大多数英语报纸都是反种族隔离的，并且有常驻警察监视工作人员（我们的高级记者之一）；报纸在午夜印制后，我曾多次接到治安官办公室打来的电话，对一个故事施加禁令。我们将不得不给卡车打电话，扔掉10万份报纸，然后再版。面临的挑战是在不违反法律的情况下向读者通报正在发生的事情，并大声反对种族隔离。南非有自己的水门项目。种族隔离政府理解说英语的人通常是反种族隔离的，因此它从国防预算中抽走了6400万兰特，并成立了信息部。目的是在海外购买会被种族隔离的媒体，并在南非建立了一个英语报纸来被种族隔离。它被称为《公民》，我获得了一份副编辑的工作，薪水是我的两倍，再加上奥迪。（出于记录，我拒绝了报价）。两名记者揭露了这一丑闻，并推翻了总理。