Avaaz.org has people emailing Parliament
Last night Avaaz.org sent out the following message in support of efforts to mobilise people to stop the Secrecy Bill. We’re told that over 12,500 people had forwarded messages to the chief whips of Parliament within hours, and the numbers are climbing:
In five days, MPs could pass an outrageous secrecy bill that undermines the constitution and South Africa’s democracy — helping the government keep wrongdoing from the people and enabling cover-ups of corruption and human rights abuses. But there are four people that could make or break this bill: the Chief Whips.
Despite top lawyers warning that the bill is unconstitutional, the majority of MPs are expected to vote it through. But it will be up to the Chief Whips to rally the MPs to vote for or against the bill. If we flood their inboxes with messages from across South Africa calling on them to respect the law and oppose the secrecy bill, they could think twice about pushing it through.Let’s appeal to the Whips’ sense of democratic responsibility and call on them to protect hard-won constitutional rights and freedoms, and transparent government. Click now to send a message straight to their inboxes and urge them to say No to the Secrecy Bill, then share this with everyone — we will release the number of messages sent to the media on the eve of the vote.
http://www.avaaz.org/en/
Throughout the last year, we have joined campaigners across the country to stop this draconian law. But despite repeated objections from communities in the Right2Know campaign, the media, academics, lawyers, politicians, COSATU and even high-profile figures from within the ANC, last Monday the Committee adopted a draft that is seriously flawed: the security sector will have carte blanche to label anything it terms national security as classified, and anyone who possesses or publishes that information can be jailed for up to 25 years, even if the information is in the public interest.
Whistle-blowers, journalists or anyone who discloses classified information for the public good — information that exposes abuse of power, human rights violations or wrongdoing — could be punished. It’ll be up to the police, defense and intelligence forces to decide what we should or should not know. This will both thwart our ability to keep tabs on our government and obstruct important anti-corruption investigations.
But we know that our outcry works — in the last year, massive public pressure has won some important changes from the original draft. Minimum sentences have been removed, the power to classify information is now restricted to the intelligence and security sectors, and the definition of what needs to be classified due to national security has been limited. Now if we all stand together again and object to this shocking final draft, we could push the Whips to move against the vote and force a redraft that protects both the government and the public. Click now to send a message to the Chief Whips now and send this to everyone:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_
If this law passes it will trample on our constitutional rights, muzzle the media and critically damage this fragile democracy. Our massive movement opposing this regressive bill has repeatedly pushed back and won clause after clause. Now this is down to the wire, and we only have five days. If we stick together and raise our voices now, we can persuade the National Assembly to stand with the people that they represent, not endorse this democracy’s destruction.
With hope,
Alice, Sam, Pascal, Ricken, Mia, Shivendra and the rest of the Avaaz team
More information:
Campaigners call to scrap Protection of Information Bill
http://mg.co.za/article/2011-
Protection of Information Bill could be taken to Constitutional Court
http://www.iol.co.za/news/
Committee passes final draft of Protection of Information Bill to the National Assembly
http://www.iol.co.za/news/
