Information Bill 'necessary'

While government will look at narrowing the scope of the controversial Protection of Information Bill, it will not satisfy those who oppose it, say opposition political parties.

The proposed legislation has come under fire for potentially restricting media freedom and the publication of information deemed to be classified by government. This would affect all forms of media, including online publishers and journalists, who would face penalties of between five and 25 years in prison for publishing classified information.

Speaking before Parliament's ad hoc committee, which will oversee the drafting of the law, state security minister Siyabonga Cwele said the law was necessary as SA had become a haven for espionage activities and that its open society was allowing this to foster.

Cwele said that, while he accepted the need for the law to be changed in order to remove the concept of “national interest and commercial” as being too wide, the defence for journalists or others releasing classified information in the “public interest” would be rejected.

He said that having weighed the largely critical comments, he remained convinced that it was necessary to have a new law to protect SA's national security.

“There are several clear and present dangers that call for the enactment of a law that would help protect the national security of SA. These emanate from outside and inside this country and include, inter alia, espionage, information peddling alteration of critical databases,” Cwele said.

Democratic Alliance shadow justice minister Dene Smuts said Cwele's stance amounted to a bid to legitimise the long-standing abuse of state intelligence to police political activity. She said this was part of the paranoia that began under former president Thabo Mbeki.

Smuts described the secrecy spread as an “oil slick”, because the National Intelligence Agency was allowed to spy in areas that should be beyond its brief in any healthy democracy.

Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille led a demonstration to the Constitutional Court late last week, to protest the Protection of Information Bill and possible creation of a Media Appeals Tribunal.

Zille described these developments as attempts to undermine the country's democracy.

Although the Protection of Information Bill was supposed to be finalised by Parliament this month, Cwele indicated work on it was still ongoing, and that it would return to the committee for further input.