MPs get back to work on info bill
The following article was published in Times Live.
Parliament resumes its deliberations on the Protection of Information Bill today, with pressure on the ANC to go beyond the concessions it promised last month in response to demands by labour federation Cosatu.
During the parliamentary recess, there were warnings from several quarters that the ANC climb-down on the bill did not defuse its provisions’ threats to freedom of information and expression.
Nobel literature laureate Nadine Gordimer said the concessions “are to be understood for what they are – token moves to silence the rejection of the bill”. Academics and activists such as Gordimer say the legislation was conceived to give the state wide powers of secrecy and cannot be wrested from its origins by lopping away offending clauses.
The ruling party agreed last month to restrict the power to classify information to state security agencies.
About 1000 organs of state, from ministries to public museums, were initially to have been authorised to classify information as secret.
Right2Know campaign co-ordinator Murray Hunter said he would press MPs to restrict instances in which intelligence officials could classify information.
“[The amended bill] is better but it is not great,” he said.
As the bill stood, the state could still draw a veil over any issue by proclaiming it a “security matter”, with severe implications for the rights of the media and the citizenry, Hunter said.
The group wanted the problems with the bill to be resolved by MPs but if that proved impossible it would launch a court challenge, he said.
Legal expert Pierre de Vos has said the bill was unconstitutional.
Wits law professor Iain Currie said the bill’s chances of passing constitutional muster were about “50/50” after the concessions, which include scrapping mandatory jail sentences for possessing and passing on information that has been classified.
Unlike the political opposition, he believed that a complete redrafting of the bill, restricting it to securing defence secrets, was needed instead of the legislature’s “emergency surgery”.
The ANC has not budged on calls for a public-interest defence for whistle-blowers and reporters facing prison for disclosing state secrets.
Academics proposed a return to a 2008 version of the bill, which prescribes punishment only for disclosure that could seriously harm the country.
Source: Times Live
