Thanks! Let’s keep Herald alive for another 170 years
TODAY is the 170th year that The Herald has been published – making it the oldest daily newspaper still in existence in South Africa.
This accomplishment is no mean feat. It takes many people to bring out the news every day in print, online and on social media.
It is not only the editorial team – the journalists, photographers, editors and subeditors – who make it possible for a newspaper to appear on the street and on the shop shelves, online or on your smartphone or tablet.
It takes advertising sales reps and their loyal clients, retailers, street sellers and agents, publishers, distributors, accountants, marketers, printers, truck drivers, human resources staff and administrators.
Ultimately, and most importantly, it takes you, our loyal readers who subscribe to our paper or buy it from street sellers and shops.
It is a tribute to all of you hard-working people of the region that The Herald is still available as a source of local, national and international news, views and entertainment after 170 years.
For this tremendous support of our work we are extremely grateful.
Your support for a small local newspaper comes at a time when the free flow of information is under attack all over the world by those in power, be it government, business or private lives, who would prefer their dirty laundry kept secret; who wish to assert their power through being the gatekeepers of vital knowledge and information.
This week, on May 3, the United Nations World Press Freedom Day, UN SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon said that every day of the year “the fundamental freedom to receive and impart information and ideas through any media is under assault, to the detriment of us all”.
He said that last year 70 journalists were killed – many caught in the cross-fire of armed hostilities. Fourteen more have suffered the same fate this year.
Also last year, 211 journalists were held in prison.
To continue improving our service, we journalists need the continued support of alert citizens who 1) buy our products, 2) read the information, and 3) write and partake in public life to ensure that your various views are expressed.
The greatest enemy to freedom of the press is not the government or business, but apathy.
The switching off, the retreat to the cocoon of comfort, the disengagement from public life, ignorance, illiteracy and apathy is what kills newspapers and indeed all media.
All we ask of you is to keep reading, keep criticising, keep engaging on all our platforms, to keep our newspaper alive for another 170 years.