Approved of final section by journalist written about Old Republican (8)
I believe the answer is:
endorsed
'approved' is the definition.
(endorsing is a kind of approving)
'final section by journalist written about old republican' is the wordplay.
'final section' becomes 'end' (the end of something).
'by' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'journalist' becomes 'ed' (short for editor).
'written about old republican' becomes 'ors' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'ed' after 'ors' is 'orsed'.
'end'+'orsed'='ENDORSED'
'of' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for endorsed that I've seen before include "Publicly approved" , "Declared one's approval of" , "Wrote one's signature on the back" , "Formally backed" , "Gave approval to" .)