Voices
Lack of letters in SAJR displays a “parev” attitude
Some time ago I had an exchange of correspondence with the newly appointed editor of the SA Jewish Report. The subject of that correspondence was to express my disappointment at the relegation of the letter page(s) to a measly few column centimetres and the publishing of only two or three letters.
Allan Wolman, Johannesburg
The positive response I received from the editor was that the “lifeblood of a good newspaper was the letter page” which gave some hope that the SAJR would revert back to the days when a full page or even two pages, were devoted to letters to the editor.
Alas under the current editor, or perhaps acting under orders from the ownership or board, the newspaper has not lived up to “the lifeblood” of a good newspaper. It seems that editorial policy is to remain “parev” and to not allow any controversial letter published.
How disappointing that the narrowminded attitude of either ownership or editorial policy, has denied our community the option of lively debate; such debate in a time like this, is more important than ever before, given the many issues that either divide or unite our community.
The politics of Israel, with such diverse opinions, as well as local issues, are now being suppressed, reminiscent of the days that the apartheid regimes tried to control our thoughts.
The truth is we use 96% of all the letters we receive. The only ones we don’t use are either repetitive, filled with hate speech or written by the same writers every week. We try to get as many different views as possible. Since I joined the newspaper in February, we have had letters in every edition bar one. – Editor