Black Wednesday is as relevant now as it was In 1977

ON OCTOBER 19, 1977, the apartheid government launched a brutal attack on opposition groups, individual activists, and the media.

- LANCE WITTEN

Mourners at the funeral of Black Consciousness (BC) leader Steve Biko in King William's Town on September 25, 1977. INSET TOP: Then South African Students' Organisation leaders Saths Cooper, Aubrey Mokoape and Strini Moodley were imprisoned for their BC activism. INSET BELOW: Percy Qoboza, editor of The World and Weekend World. In the aftermath of Biko's murder the apartheid regime banned 19 BC organisations, The World, and The Weekend World, and Qoboza was detained without trial, by Independent Media Archives

(Independent Media Archives)

Its particular target was the alternative media - the free press - read primarily by black South Africans. The World newspaper and its sister publication the Weekend World, two anti-apartheid titles, were banned, and editor Percy Qoboza, and his deputy Aggrey Klaatse, were arrested.

This followed the death in police custody of Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko just a month prior on September 12, and it galvanised activism in South Africa.

Black Wednesday was the lowest point in history for the media in South Africa. Direct government censorship, a direct assault on the truth. Controlling the narrative is a key part in maintaining the upper hand in any war, and when truth becomes your enemy, you find yourself on the wrong side of history.

We recognise this dark time in South Africa's history; but we also recognise this in the murder of hundreds of journalists covering the genocide of Palestinians by the Israeli apartheid regime.