Exhibition and World Press Freedom Day seminar marks Grocott's Mail's 140 years
Grahamstown: South Africa’s oldest independently-owned newspaper company, Grocott’s Mail, marks its 140th anniversary on Monday 4 May with the launch of a major historical exhibition and a seminar on press freedom.
The exhibition is a partnership between the paper, the Albany Museum, Cory Library and the National English Literacy Museum. It is sponsored by Mondi Shanduka Newsprint and the Legal Aid Board.
Grocotts Then and Now Exhibition Invitation.pdf
Grocotts Then and Now Exhibition Invitation.pdf
On display will be large panels that present the colourful history of the press in South Africa, as well as the specific story of Grocott’s Mail. Printing and publishing artefacts, including from the private collection of the Grocott’s family, will be on public show – some for the first time.
The exhibition will become an enduring legacy for public education about newspapers. Part will be housed in the renovated Eastern Star Museum under the auspices of the National English Literary Museum. Other parts will be rotated through the Africa Media Matrix building, home of the Rhodes journalism school.
Grocott’s Mail celebrates its 140th birthday at a time when it is also pioneering citizen journalism via cellphones in conjunction with Rhodes Prof Harry Dugmore, MTN Chair of Media and Mobile Communications, and with support from the US-based Knight Foundation.
Rhodes’ internationally-known School of Journalism and Media Studies will also convene a major seminar in the afternoon ahead of the exhibition, examining the state of newspapering worldwide. This seminar is being hosted by the School together with the Sol Plaatje Institute for Media Leadership, the School’s media management training centre.
Prof Guy Berger, Head of School of Journalism and Media Studies, said:
"Since 1996, South Africa has enshrined freedom of expression and of the media in the national constitution.
We commemorate this anniversary each year so that students can celebrate the value of press freedom and be encouraged to defend it from dangers.
This year we combine it with celebrating 140 years of service to society by the Grocott’s company, contributing to the exhibition, and arranging an international seminar on the significance of newspapers.”
Speakers at the Rhodes seminar include Prakash Desai, representing the Print Media Association of South Africa. The forerunner of the PMSA was launched on 27 November 1882 in Grahamstown by a group of publishers including the founder of Grocott’s Mail, Thomas H Grocott.
US expert, Vin Crosbie, will also address the proceedings, as will Mirjana Milosevic, Deputy Director of Press Freedom and Development Programmes at the World Association of Newspapers
For more information or to attend the exhibition and/or seminar, contact:
Prof Guy Berger, Head of School, 082 801 1405, G.Berger@ru.ac.za
Louise Vale, General Manager, Grocott’s Mail, 072 477 1081, L.Vale@ru.ac.za
Catherine Lambley, Albany Museum, 046 622 2312, C.Lambley@ru.ac.za