In the apartheid era the media were muzzled by censorship laws. In the democratic South Africa the threat to press freedom is self-censorship by journalists who feared being labelled unpatriotic or racist.
This is the view of journalist Max du Preez, who addressed journalists at Independent Newspapers in Cape Town on World Press Freedom Day on Thursday.
Du Preez, who was labelled a racist by the government for referring on radio last month to allegations that President Thabo Mbeki was a womaniser, said the constitution and Bill of Rights meant the country's media were "possibly freer than anywhere else".
"But a far more serious threat has come to face us. In the past there were laws that limited us as journalists. We could break them or obey them.
"The new threat is the tendency we've seen from the ruling party to question your loyalty to our new society when you use your freedom in the media. Now there is a fear of being called an enemy or a racist.
"Every time a white journalist attacks the government, we're labelled racist. This results in self-censorship, which is a most dangerous threat to the principle of democracy.
"In the apartheid time I was taken to court 47 times for breaking press censorship laws. Now I find the issue of press freedom more difficult because the enemy is not defined."
Du Preez said that while he was editor of Vrye Weekblad, the newspaper exposed serious issues like Vlakplaas, the apartheid government's hit-squad headquarters, and had run exposes on the apartheid government almost every week. None of these reports had been carried in the mainstream newspapers.
"But when I made that remark about President Mbeki, my face was plastered on the mainstream papers as if I'd died."
He had been prepared to take criticism for his remark about Mbeki, but found it sad that the government had "grabbed the racist angle" in condemning him, Du Preez said.
Asked by a journalist if it was ethical to write about Mbeki's private life, he said he did not believe in journalists "going behind bedroom doors" unless it was in the public interest.
"In this instance I believe it was correct. My remark was not a slip of the tongue. The political elite know about it. Why not put it on the table for the nation to discuss?"