Info Bill in South Africa

[Russel]

This bill could lead to journalists being imprisoned for 25 years if they expose “classified” corruption. Ridiculous, heres the article:

South African opposition parties have vowed to go all the way to the country’s top court, the Constitutional Court, to have the controversial Protection of State information Bill declared unconstitutional after parliament passed the bill.

It’s a day that will go down as a dark day in South Africa’s history, with protestors outside the country’s parliament voicing their opposition against the contentious bill.

Inside the corridors of power, the ANC majority in the country’s parliament steamrolled and passed the contentious Protection of State Information Bill also known as the Info Bill.

A total of 229 out of 400 members of parliament voted in favour of the bill – inching it closer to becoming law, but media activist claim the bill will curtail media freedom and those that publish information from whistleblowers would also face stiff sentences.

There was fierce resistance in the parliamentary gallery with opposition parties using all their muscles and every parliamentary rule in a vain attempt to delay the proceedings.

this Bill will unstitch the very fabric of our constitution
The Democratic Alliance’s Lindiwe Mazibuko led the charge arguing that “it should never have come to this. Today is a dark day for our young democracy”.

“If passed, this Bill will unstitch the very fabric of our constitution. It will criminalise the freedoms that so many of our people fought for,” she added.

The ANC’s Llewellyn Landers accused people opposing the bill of not reading it, adding that the ANC supported it because it will repeal an Apartheid era law enacted in 1982.

“Those opposed to the bill want the old PW Botha Act to stay on the statue books,” he argued, adding that it was, therefore, essential for the ANC to support the passing of the bill.


The Inkatha Freedom Party, IFP, called on President Jacob Zuma not to sign the bill into law.

Mondli Makhanya, who heads the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef), said editors were broken after the approval of the bill and would work with unions and civic society to fight the bill.


Human Rights Watch described the bill as “a blow to freedom of expression and democratic accountability”.

They said, parliament should have heeded the calls of South African civil society, representatives of the media, and political opposition and refrained from holding the vote.

South Africa’s largest trade union movement, Cosatu has demanded that the bill be redrafted. The union’s main concern is the bill’s lack of protection for whistle-blowers who pass on classified documents to expose corruption, but it also supports widespread calls for a public interest defence clause.

The Protection of State Information Bill has a long way to go before it becomes law. The bill now moves to the National Council of Provinces, but this is likely to be debated sometime next year.

According to Reuters, the bill’s passage briefly weakened the rand, with investors saying the vote dampened sentiment

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