Blowing the whistle: ANC softens
The following article was published online by IOL News:
In a bid to appease critics, the ANC has proposed offering some protection to whistleblowers. However, its suggestion falls short of the demand for a public interest defence to shield those who disclose classified information for the good of society.
The party said on Thursday it wanted to align the Protection of Information Bill with the whistleblower legislation, and to that end proposed a clause that would make anyone who unlawfully disclosed classified information guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to imprisonment for a maximum of five years.
ANC MP Luwellyn Landers said the exception would be where the disclosure was protected under the Protected Disclosures Act, or Section 159 of the Companies Act, or authorised by any other law.
But the Protected Disclosures Act only seeks to protect an employee, whether in the private or the public sector, from being subjected to occupational censure for having made a protected disclosure.
Civil society groups and media houses have called for a public interest defence which would protect whistleblowers and journalists who make public classified information which is in the public interest.
The bill, as it stands, proposes jail sentences of up to 25 years for people who disclose classified information.
The Right2Know’s Murray Hunter rejected the ANC’s proposal, describing it as “the narrowest possible protection you can give to whistleblowers” as the Protected Disclosures Act only protected whistleblowers employed by the body under scrutiny.
“It does nothing to protect investigative reporters or ordinary members of the public.”
On Thursday, the ANC also proposed re-thinking its definition of national security.
On Wednesday, in what was seen as an about-turn from the concessions made before the winter recess, the party gave a “broad” definition of national security, saying a threat to a country was more than just a bomb going off; it included lack of proper services, shortage of food, water and a lack of development.
Another threat to national security, the ANC said, was information-peddling.
ANC MP Cecil Burgess explained this as the deliberate distortion of information or facts and presenting this to the security services with the intention or effect of prejudicing or destabilising the security of the republic and the fabricating of information and distribution or publication of it or allowing it to be distributed or published with the intention or effect of prejudicing or destabilising the security of the republic.
While they welcomed his explanation, opposition parties proposed that the offence be specifically applicable to intelligence operatives.
DA MP David Maynier said there was no evidence that information-peddlers were handing information to the intelligence services with the intention of destabilising the state, but there was a suggestion that peddlers had handed information or disinformation to the services with a view to possibly destabilising the unity of the ruling party. – Political Bureau
Source: IOL News
