Word: pogrund
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...Benjamin Pogrund wonders at this sort of fuss. In Johannesburg, South Africa, at The Rand Daily Mail (where Pogrund works as Associate Editor, third in command), decisions of this type--whether to or how much of a story to run, while trying to avoid a judicial run-in with the government--occur every day, and nobody bats an eyelash...
...told," Pogrund says, "that the editors consult their lawyer about once every six weeks here at The Globe." (The Boston Globe invited Pogrund to take a six-month position last year, and since June his byline has appeared atop stories on the mounting racial crisis in South Africa...
Investigating a lead, sifting out hard facts, even choosing one's words proves a ticklish, and often mind-racking chore, Pogrund says. Since he began to regularly but cautiously cover the activities of South African black nationalists and investigate what he terms the "appalling" conditions of government prisons (where mostly black political prisoners are held), Pogrund has had to go to court three times, and without the support of many First Amendment-like rights...
...Under the Defense Act, for instance," Pogrund says, "we cannot print anything about the government's purchase of military hardware from France, say, without clearance. Last fall, we couldn't publish a word about the Angolan war without checking with the Defense Ministry first...
What would happen if The Mail ignored the act? "Oh, that would mean a very serious trial," Pogrund says. "They'd charge us with printing military secrets--very serious...