22 Nov 2011

South Africa’s new secrecy laws

Democracy and press freedom campaigners are calling today Black Tuesday in reference to October 19th 1977 (called Black Wednesday – though rather different to the one in Britain) when the apartheid regime banned several newspapers and individuals in their assault on freedom of expression.

I blogged earlier in the year from South Africa about the attempts by the South African government to make whistle blowing much harder. Well, they’ve done it.

The Secrecy Bill has passed to the applause of the ANC, whose comfortable majority forced it through.

Democracy and press freedom campaigners are calling today Black Tuesday in reference to October 19th 1977 (called Black Wednesday – though rather different to the one in Britain) when the apartheid regime banned several newspapers and individuals in their assault on freedom of expression.

As I reported at the time many of the journalists campaigning against this law have said what is going on in Britain post-hacking scandal is deeply worrying to them.

For as long as a “liberal democracy” such as ours is prepared to countenance state regulation of the work of the media then governments such as South Africa’s which are still working through their relatively new relationship with a free press will use it as an example.

Serving South African politicians and officials are currently besieged by whistleblowing junior officials who expose corruption almost every week in the press. That is going to get a lot harder when it becomes illegal to be in unauthorised possession of classified government secrets on pain of a twenty five year jail term.

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