SA needs watchdog on govt
THE Protection of Information Bill affects many ordinary citizens, the press and civil society groups. This bill claims to protect classified state information and privacy.
The question posed by many South Africans is how much of this bill serves as a cover to deflect attention away from growing corruption and ineptitude in what is becoming rapidly a global undertaking. The media provide everyone with a reliable source of information from investigative journalists who are committed to exposing suspect behaviour.
How is it that in a country such as South Africa where confidence in government is low can legislation be sought that jails journalists for 25 years if they publish “classified” information? And why reject a public interest clause?
Citizens and taxpayers alike have vested interests, socially politically and economically, and rights to be informed of how their tax “investment” is used.
Downgraded by ratings agencies, a bloated and overpaid bureaucracy, poor leadership and management, cronyism, maladministration and apathy toward the citizen, the South African government hastens to implement a bill ostensibly to protect classified information, but instead could inadvertently conceal all of these negativities.
Even if the intentions to implement this information bill are honourable, the behaviour of political leadership and management raises suspicion.
South Africans, like other citizens globally, need to take a stand against government impunity.
Currently in the UK, the Leveson Report calls for press regulation by an independent press watchdog.
It will possess the authority to impose large fines (up to £1-million) and imprison journalists for a period of two years. The suggested independent press watchdog, Ofcom, will have a chief appointed by government ministers.
The opposition seeks immediate implementation of the Leveson Report in its entirety as a defence that the UK press undertook phone tapping and implied the guilt of people such as the McCann family.
Globally, civil servants, happily gorging themselves on taxpayer contributions, are using the experiences of ordinary people to curb the press that exposes corruption, bribery and maladministration.
These are serious concerns and when journalists cannot protect their sources then citizens and taxpayers need to resist such legislation.
This is an escalating global phenomenon.
Egypt, under the Islamic loyalist leadership of President Mohammed Morsi, attempted to control the judiciary, and has rushed through a new draft constitution that curbs the dissemination of information and suppresses press freedom.
The newly drafted constitution includes provisions that make insults against the government punishable.
In Russia, Vladimir Putin’s control has led to greater repression of journalistic freedom and legislation threatens the security of anyone who challenges the government.
The Duma has unanimously approved legislation where divulging any state information is treasonous.
Italian politician and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, himself a media mogul and the major shareholder of Mediaset, has been instrumental in drafting legislation that forbids the press from reporting on criminal investigations and places journalists under pressure to belong to the Ordine dei Giornalisti, if they wish to pursue certain stories.
China’s stateowned media responded to the exposure of escalating bribery, nepotism and greed within the Communist Party by claiming that moderate corruption was permissible while the government sought to censure the internet.
The Leveson Report – like the info bill – seeks to inform on whistle-blowers and identify them to the police.
This will prevent people from exposing any suspicious behaviour to the press for fear of self-exposure, intimidation and possible arrest.
Bills that claim to signify state protection and therefore to protect citizens appear in reality rather to protect individual or group interests over that of the state and to act against the population. No longer is the enemy considered outside territorial borders, seeking to infiltrate and indoctrinate the unsuspecting population, but citizens have become the enemy.
While the US press appears unrestricted, the limited and biased coverage of the Wall Street occupation illustrates a disturbing trend.
Taxpayers need to ask whether they are served by civil servants whose salaries they pay or whether civil servants serve their personal interests at the expense of the population. The taxpayer has become a reviled group, similar to a bygone era of scorned tenanted farmers on a land owner’s property who paid for the excesses of aristocratic lifestyles.
The difference here is that civil servants are not landed aristocracy and taxpayers are hard-working individuals who are owed a modicum of respect, not scorn.
When mismanagement and ineptitude are uncovered the response from government is to scoff at any form of explanation to the public.
This is by no means restricted to South African civil servants, but is a global trend by governments in their lax treatment and often reluctant appraisal of corrupt civil servants.
Governments argue that secrecy bills and information acts are necessary measures, but citizens are experiencing an erosion of fundamental human rights including the right to expression, although a particular minister claims that this is not an absolute right.
These restrictions on the media will in future become restrictions on civil society organisations.
Transparency International argues that 62% of South Africans believe that corruption has increased, and that the police and political parties are most affected by corruption.
So the entities that uphold and enforce the laws, defend the constitution and provide moral national leadership are considered by their citizens to be financially and morally corrupt. This doesn’t bode well for any attempts at genuine nation building.
Curbing the flow of information will result in a decline of public awareness and, as George Orwell wrote, in time when the Party tells you that two and two make five, you will have to believe it.