Abstract
The press and all other aspects of South African cultural life – from political cartoons to home movies – are carefully controlled and circumscribed by some 20 laws which permit censorship. Although the main South African newspapers have so far escaped open state control, they have done so only because the major newspaper owners have adopted a self-censorship code. It was revised and strengthened last year under heavy government pressure (see INDEX 4/1974, p.v and 1/1375, p.90). Thus pressmen in South Africa are subject to internal control by their employers as well as being subject to arrest, detention and banning under a number of government provisions. A digest of these provisions follows, together with the other censorship laws which operate on South African culture generally. This list updates the one published two years ago in Index on Censorship, 3/1973, compiled by the South African journalist and barrister, Frene Ginwala.