Like it was: The Star 100 Years in Johannesburg 1887-1987 by Clarke James

ISBN: 0620093897

Publisher: Argus Print. & Pub. Co, 1987

Hardcover, 244 pages

The Star happens to be older than Johannesburg itself. It has watched it grow, and enjoyed most of it. Apart from threats to horsewhip the editor in the '20s, when that was fashionable, and death threats to the editor in the '80s, when left-wing and rightwing terrorism was fashionable; apart from bannings in the last century, and legal prosecutions in this; apart from the occasional burning down of the building and the odd siege, it has enjoyed every minute of "telling it like it is". We hope you will enjoy a pleasant browse through some of those tense, hilarious, shattering and silly times as we now try to tell it as it was. While completing this book, Like it was: The Star 100 Years in Johannesburg 1887-1987, with all South African newspapers, was subjected to curbs under yet another State of Emergency. Press freedom was once more under seige. It looked critical. But historical perspective suggests that a newspaper that has survived authoritarian closure; financial crises, arson and political censorship in the past, should not now be timid about the future.