Date: 3 August, 1985

Security forces raided a meeting at the Cathedral Church, Doornfontein and under the emergency regulations arrested the Weekly Mail and Guardian journalist Gail Evans who was at the time covering the meeting.

The newspaper was critical of the Apartheid government and supported moves for the end of apartheid. Under the emergency regulations reporters were prohibited from covering news relating to police attempts to quell unrest. The Weekly Mail and Guardian newspaper was taken off the shelves for a week for breaking the emergency regulations by reporting about unrest in Soweto and for criticising military conscription.

The emergency regulations were extended to cover anti-apartheid organisations like the End Conscription Campaign, which was against the compulsory conscription of White males and the Detainees parents Support Committee, which assisted families of detainees in locating their detained family members.

Click here to read a grade 12 classroom lesson about emergency regulations.

Source:

1. Weekly Mail Reporter. (1988). Why our weekly mail disappeared from the shelves, Weekly Mail and Guardian, Vol 5, no 31, pg 3.
2. Weekly Mail Reporter. (1985). Security net shifts beyond townships , Weekly Mail and Guardian, Vol, 1, No 2, pg 1.