Up until 1994, the country had a thriving Alternative press comprising community broadsheets, bilingual weeklies and even student "zines" and photocopied samizdats.
After the elections, funding and support for such ventures dried up, but there has been a resurgence of interest in alternative forms of news gathering of late, particularly since the events of 11 September 2001.
For example, South African investigative journalist Donald Woods became renowned after he fled to live in the United Kingdom in exile after helping to expose the truth behind the death of Steve Biko, the leader of the Black Consciousness Movement, along with fellow journalist and current South African politician, Helen Zille.
Laws concerning the media and political control over its content are generally considered to be moderate and there is little evidence of repressive measures against journalists.
Some media aspects of the Oilgate scandal[2] have also been a cause for concern as was the banning of the publication of the cartoons of Muhammad in South Africa by Judge Mohammed Jajbhay on 3 February 2006.
[4] Recently, the Protection of Information Bill and the proposed Media Appeals Tribunal has caused controversy both domestically and abroad with allegations that press freedom is under threat.
The first privately owned newspaper, the SA Commercial Advertiser was published in 1824, with Thomas Pringle and John Fairbairn as editors.
According to a South African Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) survey in 1996, there were 36 daily and weekly urban newspapers in the country – 29 in English, four in Afrikaans, two in Zulu and one in Xhosa.
[citation needed] While the mass consumer market sector is dominated by only a few publishers (Naspers, Perskor, CTP Holdings, TML), the specialist consumer and trade & technical sectors are very fragmented and contain a large number of small- and medium-sized publishers in addition to the aforementioned major players.
The company publishes large national titles such as Fair Lady, Sarie, Insig, SA Sports Illustrated, Kickoff, Huisgenoot, You and Drum.
Fair Lady and Sarie are South Africa's largest selling English- and Afrikaans-language women's magazines, respectively.
[6] Other large mass market publishers are Perskor (Republican Press), CTP Holdings and Times Media.
Multichoice is the oldest provider of pay TV and satellite broadcasting in the country, with one terrestrial pay TV channel, M-Net, and DStv, a digital satellite television network with over 55 local and international channels that broadcasts to over 2 million subscribers throughout Africa.
By the mid 1980s another five languages had their own stations and four music-only regional, commercial broadcasters had been added to the FM network.
[8] The majority of radio stations broadcast in English, although the other official languages of South Africa are represented on the airwaves as well.