Ferial Haffajee

Ferial Haffajee is the editor of the City Press newspaper and was previously the editor of the Mail & Guardian newspaper. She was the first Indian female editor of a major newspaper in South Africa.

Haffajee is a board member at the International Women's Media Foundation.^[1]

Early career

Haffajee was appointed to the board of the International Press Institute on 7 October 2011.

She was a cub reporter at Mail & Guardian and has acted as its associate editor, media editor and economics writer at various times. Before taking up the editorship she held jobs at state broadcaster SABC, as a radio producer and television reporter,^[2] and at the Financial Mail magazine, where she was a senior editor responsible for political coverage and the managing editor.^[3]

Mail & Guardian editorship

Haffajee was appointed editor of Mail & Guardian in February 2004,^[4] two years after control of the paper was acquired by Zimbabwean publisher Trevor Ncube.^[5]

In 2005 the paper became one of the few publications, after the regime change of 1994, interdicted from publishing specific stories.^[6] In 2006 the paper was again interdicted, and Haffajee threatened, after republishing controversial cartoons depicting Muhammad.^[7]

In March 2009 Mail & Guardian announced Haffajee's resignation, saying she would take up the position of editor of City Press in July.^[8] Previous speculation had identified her as a potential appointee as head of news at the SABC.^[9]

References