The Right2Know campaign will round off a week of action to highlight concerns over the possible introduction of the Protection of Information Bill with marches in Durban and Cape Town, the organisers said.
“The campaign is gaining ground and the minister of state security is retreating,” they said in a statement ahead of the marches.
The intention of the Bill is to widen the type of information the government can classify, and critics believe this will lead to arbitrary classification of information to avoid scrutiny of possible wrongdoing by government officials.
They believe that even with changes proposed by Minister of State Security Siyabonga Cwele, the Bill would still “choke the free flow of information”.
“This Bill fundamentally undermines the struggle for whistleblower protection and access to information. It is one of a number of proposed measures, which could have the combined effect of fundamentally undermining the right to access information and the freedom of expression enshrined in the Constitution.”
In terms of the Bill, even a local municipality can classify public information as secret citing “national interest”.
The penalties of revealing this classified information would include jail — up to 25 years — and officials do not need to provide reasons for classifying the information. The Bill extends to being able to also classify commercial information.
The Right2Know campaign is a coalition of 370 organisations opposed to the Bill, which is currently before Parliament.
‘We need to debate it honestly’
Meanwhile, debating the Bill “hysterically” would not help people who had concerns about it, ANC veteran Pallo Jordan said on Tuesday.
“We need to debate it honestly and not hysterically. Debating it hysterically only adds heat,” he said in Durban during a debate on media diversity.
The Bill has been met with opposition mainly from media practitioners, who have argued it would make it impossible for journalists to carry out their work.
Jordan called for a “sober debate” on the Bill, saying that secrecy Bills had a purpose.
“There is no country that has no secrets. The purpose of the Bill is to protect secrets of this country. All we have to do is to take part in the debate.” — Sapa