Right2know:parliament must vote to reject state info bill

Imogen Vollenhoven
24 April 2013

The Right2Know Campaign has called on Members of Parliament to vote with their conscious and reject the State of Information Bill.

MP’s will on Thursday vote to pass the Secrecy Bill at the National Assembly. 

Right2Know said Members of the National Assembly must not betray our democracy. 

Right2Know’s Murry Hunter said The Secrecy Bill only has narrow protection for whistleblowers and public advocates that excludes a range of matters in the public interest like shady tendering practices or improper appointments within key state agencies.

Hunter added that this half-measure fails to acknowledge the urgent need to address South Africa’s whistleblower crisis as well as the global abuse of national security laws to protect state interests against the scrutiny of citizens.

“A whistleblower, journalist or activist who discloses a classified record with the purpose of revealing corruption or other criminal activity may be prosecuted under the espionage and other offences not covered by the proposed Public Interest Defense,” said Hunter