/ 22 July 1994

Editorial Rights With Teeth

THE Weekly Mail & Guardian has launched a campaign for the release of state information not only because we enjoy prodding cabinet ministers into action. It is to give substance to the ANC’s own policy of transparency, and to give meaning to the right to state information embedded in our Bill of Rights.

Now it seems that much of the information collected by police about political activists, including current cabinet ministers, has been hidden or destroyed. This was done, no doubt, to protect from public scrutiny the same policemen who now proclaim their commitment to openness and accountability.

The constitutional right to information, and the ANC’s commitment to transparency, become meaningless if information can be destroyed or attempts to access it are hindered.

A mechanism is needed to control the archiving of information and to facilitate rightful access to real source material — not edited computer printouts — along the lines of the United States Freedom of Information Act. This would set out what information one is entitled to and how to go about getting it; it would create a civilian mechanism for monitoring the proper execution of this task.

This would bring to life an otherwise stillborn Bill of Rights clause.