The role of the press of the time (locally and overseas) and in particular its reliability as a source of information on the war of 1880-1881 between the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek and Britain is the subject of this article. The author comes to the ultimate conclusion that because of poor communications or total lack thereof, and because of the fact that personal sentiment played too great a part in the journalism of the war correspondents and press editors, the press of the time cannot be regarded as a reliable source for research on the history of the war in question.