South African newspaper blacks out front page in censorship protest

By Dilip -

A leading South African newspaper has blacked out several columns in its latest issue, echoing censorship of the apartheid era, after being threatened with criminal prosecution by a presidential aide. The weekly Mail & Guardian wasforced to pull a front page storyabout Mac Maharaj's possible involvement in a shady arms deal. Maharaj, a former Robben Island prisoner who helped smuggle out Nelson Mandela's autobiography, is now spokesman for president Jacob Zuma.
The newspaper said it received a legal letter from him just before its Thursday evening deadline, warning that its journalists could face prosecution, carrying up to 15 years in jail, if it published details of a police investigation into a mid-1990s arms deal that led to convictions of other government officials for bribery.
Mail & Guardian
Maharaj's legal firm argued the paper had acquired documents unlawfully, citing an act that makes it an offence to disclose evidence gathered in camera. "In the name of press freedom, the M&G arrogates to itself the 'right' to break the law that has been on our statute books since 1998," Maharaj claimed, accusing the paper of seeking "to hide its complicity in criminal acts by raising the spectre of a threat to media freedom and invoking fears of censorship".
Maharaj's letter warned of "the consequences the use of unlawfully and illegally obtained information had on a publication such as the News of the World." The anti-apartheid stalwart did not make any comment about any involvement in the tainted arms deal. The 30bn rand (£19bn) contracts to buy European military equipment has been described as the "original sin" of South Africa's young democracy. Zuma himself was implicated but not convicted.
The Mail & Guardian is considering legal options. 

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