This comprehensive study examines how the South African Press has both reflected and shaped apartheid - and its undoing - since 1976. The major issues considered include the economic difficulties facing the Press, the growth of the alternative press, and the effects of the State of Emergency (1985-1990) on press coverage, all of which are placed in their social and political context. The author looks at how the Press has had to confront these obstacles and adapt, in order to survive, and concludes by studying the forces favouring the success of a free press under a black majority government, and assessing the desirability of a national media policy.