Scary new secrets Bill
Adriaan Basson, Stefaans Brümmer and Sam Sole | Johannesburg, South Africa
28 March 2008 07:20
If new official secrets legislation had been on the statute books, the Mail & Guardian’s award-winning articles about police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi could have been illegal -- and M&G reporters could have faced lengthy jail terms.
The Protection of Information Bill was published for comment by Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils last week. A specially constituted parliamentary committee will process it and hold public hearings. Kasrils hopes to have it enacted by the end of the year.
The preamble to the Bill, which is to replace the draconian apartheid Protection of Information Act of 1982, states that its aim is to “promote the free flow of information within an open and democratic society without compromising the security of the Republic”.
Provisions include the preservation of valuable state information and the automatic declassification of all formerly secret information older than 20 years, unless it is specifically reclassified.
Uniquely, it also criminalises the abuse of classification by state officials to conceal breaches of the law, inefficiency or embarrassment.
The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) slammed the Bill this week, saying it smacked of “an attempt to eliminate genuine criticism and to entrench the powers of the executive”. Kasrils, however, writes in commentary appearing in the M&G on April 3 that “government has no interest in hampering the work of investigative journalists”.
