The M&G Centre for Investigative Journalism welcomes the concessions ANC MPs made last Friday (June 24) regarding the Protection of Information Bill.
The changes envisaged by the ANC component of the ad-hoc committee processing the Bill in parliament fall short on some of the demands of the media and civil society, but their very fact appears to signal that the MPs are taking concerns seriously and will be open to further engagement.
The ANC component will now return to the drawing board to redraft contentious parts of the Bill. We are eager to see the result.
The turnaround appears to flow in part from two roundtable discussions organised by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, which brought together government officials and civil society organisations including the Right2Know Campaign (R2K).
The M&G Centre for Investigative Journalism is a founding member of R2K.
Read a paper prepared by two leading academics for the Nelson Mandela Foundation here.
Read a response, prepared for R2K by the M&G Centre for Investigative Journalism here.
The M&G Centre for Investigative Journalism, a non-profit initiative to develop investigative journalism in the public interest, produced this story. All views are ours. See www.amabhungane.co.za for all our stories, activities and sources of funding.