South African editor Laurence Gandar was on Wednesday declared a World Press Freedom Hero by the International Press Institute (IPI), and will be honoured at a ceremony in September. Laurence Gandar was editor of the Rand Daily Mail from 1957 to 1969.

"Gandar was editor of the Johannesburg-based Rand Daily Mail from 1957 to 1969, leading the paper at a time when the country it served was going through a sea of change. Under Gandar's leadership, the paper became, in the words of his long-time collaborator Benjamin Pogrund, 'the flag-bearer of liberal opposition to apartheid' in South Africa.

"He introduced investigative journalism to South Africa, and encouraged new and incisive reporting which investigated the effects of apartheid, including the jailing of black activists, at a time when these issues were largely ignored by the mainstream media."

Read more...