The Rand Daily Mail
Front page of the Rand Daily Mail
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| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner(s) | Times Media Group |
| Publisher | Clive Kinsley |
| Editor | Ray Hartley |
| Staff writers | 15 |
| Founded | 1902 |
| Ceased publication | 1985 |
| Headquarters | Johannesburg |
| Website | www |
The Rand Daily Mail newspaper was published from 1902 until it was controversially closed in 1985 after adopting an outspoken anti-apartheid stance in the midst of a massive clampdown on activists by the security forces. The title was based in Johannesburg as a daily newspaper and best known for breaking the news about the apartheid state's Muldergate Scandal in 1979. It also exposed the truth about the death in custody of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, in 1977.
The Rand Daily Mail was resurrected as a website by Times Media Group, who hold rights to the original title, in October 2014.
Soon after it was founded in 1902 by Harry Cohen,The Rand Daily Mail was bought by mining magnate Abe Bailey.
During the apartheid years, journalists like Benjamin Pogrund reported on political and economic issues affecting black South Africans about which whites were largely ignorant. Pogrund, for example, reported on the Sharpeville massacre of 1960.
In 1963 journalists at the paper wrote about prison conditions, and were the first to report on forced removals. On 3 November 1978 Rand Daily Mail journalists Mervyn Rees and Chris Day reported on the use of public funds since 1973 to set up a disinformation network in South Africa and abroad. The money was used in attempts to buy The Washington Star, and to set up The Citizen as a government-controlled counter to The Rand Daily Mail.
Hounded by the state, the paper's board decided to moderate its content for the sake of attracting more affluent white readers. This strategy led to financial losses and the newspaper was forced to close in 1985, eighty-three years after it was founded.
After its closure, the black newspaper The Sowetan described The Rand Daily Mail as the first white newspaper to regard blacks as human beings. Yet for most of the apartheid period (1948–1990) the paper suffered from poor management, government infiltration, and state censorship. The management often tried to replace more liberal editors with conservative ones.
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Wikipedia