Censorship not so secret: iLIVE

The Times ran a story on the death of the notorious Dirk Coetzee under the headline "Apartheid secrets die with Coetzee" (March 8).

Yet some eight years after former president PW Botha gave me two lengthy "legacy interviews" , the information in those interviews remains a "secret" because television stations refuse to broadcast them. I asked Botha about Vlakplaas and the "heinous acts" of the security forces . He answered the questions.

The interview was first offered to the SABC, was well- received and an offer was made to buy it. Suddenly the offer was withdrawn. No reasons given. It is more than an educated guess that the ANC objected.

We now know that television censorship is very real.

What I do find encouraging is that our country's print media suffer from no such censorship "hang-ups".