Terry Bell
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/ 22 June 2004

State agencies punch hole in Act

South Africa’s much-vaunted right to freedom of information was undermined last year, simply because the directors general of some of the country’s intelligence agencies requested it. Like all government departments, they have, by law, to list all of the records they hold. But this does not mean that access to them is free or automatic — only that reasons should be given for denying access.