Dateline Sowetodocuments the working lives of black South African reporters caught between the mistrust of militant blacks, police harrassment, and white editors whofearing government disapprovalmay not print the stories these reporters risk their lives to get. William Finnegan revisited several of these reporters during the May 1994 election and describes their post-apartheid working experience in a new preface and epilogue.
William Finneganis a staff writer atThe New Yorkerand the author ofCrossing the Line: A Year in the Land of ApartheidandA Complicated War: The Harrowing of Mozambique, both published by California.
Documents better than most a particularly complicated and historically significant relationship of journalism to politics. Chandra Mukerji, coeditor ofRethinking Popular Culture