Nieman News

Michael Green (left) in 1974, when he was senior assistant editor of the Daily News, with then-editor John O'Malley

Michael Green (left) in 1974, when he was senior assistant editor of the Daily News, with then-editor John O'Malley

Michael Green, a 1968 Nieman Fellow who served at the helm of South Africa’s Daily News and Sunday Tribune during the height of apartheid, died August 30 in Durban, South Africa. He was 87.

A longtime journalist, Green oversaw coverage at the Daily News and Sunday Tribune first as deputy editor and, later, as editor in chief, ushering the newspaper through the complexities of South Africa’s apartheid-era censorship laws. In 1974, he was arrested and charged under those laws for reporting on a rally celebrating Mozambique’s independence.

Born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia), Green began his journalism career at 17 as a reporter at The Argus, an afternoon paper in Cape Town, South Africa. He was editor of The Friend newspaper in Bloemfontein before joining the Durban-based Daily News and Sunday Tribune following his Nieman fellowship.

A talented piano player, Green wrote reviews of the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra for ArtSMart, a news website covering the arts in Durban and the surrounding areas. He also wrote a popular wine column. In 2004, he published “Around and About: Memoirs of a South African Newspaperman,” detailing his career and the politicians, journalists, and others he met through the years.

Green’s daughter, Pippa Green, is also a journalist and a 1999 Nieman Fellow.

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