'n Inhoudsontledingstudie oor die demografiese eienskappe van deelnemers aan die Boetman-persdiskoers

Abstract

The Afrikaans Press in South Africa has always devoutly adhered to a historical tradition of restricted press freedom - authoritarian in nature - where deviant opinions were not readily tolerated. On 5 May 2000, this history and tradition were abruptly rewritten with the publication of an Open Letter from well-known journalist Chris Louw to Dr Willem de Klerk on the publication of the latter's book, Afrikaners: Kroes, kras, kordaat (2000). This notorious letter with plenty of swearing words and bitter anger captured the imagination and emotions of hundreds of Afrikaans-speaking newspaper readers, and they entered the debate and discourse with vigour and venom. For the first time, the Afrikaans press completely answered to the calling of a free press by pubUshing these raw, honest and emotional statements radically different to the prevailing sentiments of the historical Afrikaans press. Facets of more contemporary press theories, such as the democratic participation and the social responsibility theories, now became manifest. In this content analysis study on all the related documents in the discourse from 5 May to 30 July 2000, it was endeavoured to determine the most important demographics of the participants, as well as the main trends which became visible during this recent and Important press discourse, which signals a new chapter in the history of the freedom and development of the Afrikaans press.