The National Dialogue:

Towards Constituting the Right2Know

 

The Right2Know campaign was launched on 31 August 2010 to oppose the Ministry of State Security’s Protection of Information Bill - the Secrecy Bill. A number of civil society organizations made submissions and presentations to parliament opposing provisions of this bill and making counter proposals. The response by parliament was dismissive and many of these organizations met to formulate a collective response. This response was the to become the Right2Know Statement: Stop the Secrecy Bill! Let the Truth Be Told! The statement outlines the problems with the Bill and makes a set of seven demands (these demands are the basis of the Rght2Know Freedom Test). 

 

The Right2Know Campaign has grown from strength to strength. The Right2Know statement now has the support of over 400 organizations and 11000 individuals. Most notable has been the breadth of support. Campaign supporters range from social justice movements to associations of property owners, from environmental groups, to gender groups and academic organizations. The notion that the Secrecy Bill will only impact on the media has been defeated - the free flow of information is truly in everyone’s interest. 

 

We have established an open email discussion group of active supporters (http://groups.google.com/group/InfoAccessNow) and formed working groups in Gauteng, KwaZulu Natal, and the Western Cape. A very successful Week of Action saw popular education and mobilization across South Africa - public meetings, pickets, protests and marches of thousands in or urban centers. The right2Know campaign has succeed in shifting the terms of the debate: The Ministry of State Security and Parliamentary Committee dealing with the Bill went from dismissive of criticism, to a panicked series of unscheduled Ministerial appearances and committee meetings intended to spin or soften the Bill and rush it through Parliament. 

 

In a very short time the Right2Know has emerged as a vibrant campaign with significant influence in the public discourse. Our rapid growth has raised a number of questions and the R2K Working Groups have called for a National Dialogue amongst campaign supports to deliberate on matters of the Campaign's scope, strategy, and structure. 

 

This document is a contribution to setting the terms of this dialogue. It is not intended to prevent R2K supports from raising other issues that they feel should be addressed within or by the Campaign.

 

All R2K supporters are invited to discuss these matters in your communities and organizations, and attend planned Provincial Dialogues that will culminate in a National Summit in January 2011 (before Parliament reopen to consider the Secrecy Bill).

 

To share your perspectives in this Dialogue contact the Right2Know Campaign:

 

National Coordinator:       Mark Weinberg    This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it        021 461 7211

Gauteng:                        S'phiwe Segodi    This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it        011 482 1913

Kwazulu Natal:               Quinton Kippen  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  031 304 9305

Western Cape:                 Nkwame Cedile    This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  021 461 7211

 

The National Dialogue should contribute to strengthening and consolidating the R2K – and not distract us from our primary task: To educate, mobilize and organize to STOP THE SECRECY BILL! LET THE TRUTH BE TOLD!

 

 

 Dialogue #1: Scope of the Right2Know Campaign

While the Secrecy Bill before Parliament represents the most immediate threat to our ‘right to know’, it is not the only threat or limitation we face. Supports of the Right2Know have called on the campaign to take up other issues that pose a threat to the ability of all living in South Africa to access information and freely express themselves.

 

1.     Should R2K only focus on defeating the Secrecy Bill and ‘close shop’ once this goal has been achieved?

2.     If not, what are the other critical issues the campaign should be taking up? Some proposals have included:

-        Opposing the effort to legislate a Media Appeals Tribunal (MAT);

-        Promoting the use of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) to enable access to information in practice;

-        Campaign for greater diversity of media ownership;

-        Opposing parts of the Public Service Broadcasting Bill that threaten the independence of community and public broadcasting;

-        Defending the independence of the Independent Communication Authority of South Africa (ICASA) from government and corporate power;

-        Calling for a review of Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA);

-        Demanding quality public broadcasting from the SABC. Opposing governments destabilization of the Broadcaster;

-        Promoting the sustainability of community media including the demand for increased funding for the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA), reducing SENTECH transmission rates, etc;

3.     If Right2Know broadens it’s scope, how would we define the focus of the Campaign?

 

Dialogue #2: Right2Know Campaign Strategy & Tactics

Depending on our response to the questions above, a number of strategic and tactical questions arise:

 

1.     What are the current strengths and limitations of the Campaign?

2.     What are the major risks and opportunities the Campaign should consider?

3.     Is the current Right2Know statement (below) sufficient to guide our engagement with the Protection of Information Bill – the Secrecy Bill?

4.     Who are the critical constituencies that we should be engaging/mobilizing?

5.     How should we related to various other initiatives focusing on these issues including the SA National Editors Forum (SANEF) Coalition for the Freedom Speech, ANC, COSATU, Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (CASAC), SOS Support Public Broadcasting Campaign, National Community Radio Forum, etc?

6.     R2K was launched as a ‘civil society’ campaign. How should we relate to political parties and the private sector that share our perspective?

7.     How should R2K engage in the POIB policy process: With the Committee as a whole? Opposition parties? The ANC? Members of the Ministry?

8.     What legal advice and input doe the campaign require to influence the policy process?  Should the R2K have lawyers draft an alternative Bill?

9.     How should the campaign raise resources? We currently accept donor funding. What principles should inform our engagement with donors?

 

Dialogue #3: Right2Know Campaign Structure

The Right2Know campaign is currently supported by over 400 organizations and 11000 individuals that have endorsed the campaign statement. The campaign is currently led by volunteers (most representing organizations) on three working groups in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg. We have set up a small national secretariat (with a part-time coordinator and full time administrator) and manage an email discussion list where supporters give input into matters affecting the Campaign. Concerns have been raised that the current structure is too weak and undemocratic to respond to the dynamic environment in which the campaign operates.

 

1.     Should the campaign retain its’ current ‘loose’ structure? Should we strive for greater democracy (participation in developing campaign mandates) and accountability to our support base?

2.     Should the Campaign be membership based?

3.     Should we allow for either/both individual and organizational members? How will we balance the participation of different typed of members?

4.     Should the campaign have local (branch) structures? Should we organize around sectors (e.g. CBO, NGO, labour, media, religious, social movement, etc)?

5.     What should constitute a provincial structure? How should we enable national cohesion?

6.     How should different structures be constituted and how should they report and renew their mandate?

 

Right2Know Statement: Stop the Secrecy Bill! Let the Truth Be Told!

 

A responsive and accountable democracy that can meet the basic needs of our people is built upon transparency and the free flow of information. The gains of South Africans’ struggle for freedom, are threatened by the Protection of Information Bill (the Secrecy Bill) currently before Parliament. We accept the need to replace apartheid-era secrecy legislation. However, this Bill extends the veil of secrecy in a manner reminiscent of that same apartheid past. This Bill fundamentally undermines the struggle for whistleblower protection and access to information. It is one of a number of proposed measures, which could have the combined effect of fundamentally undermining the right to access information and the freedom of expression enshrined in the Constitution.

 

Our concerns:

 

The Bill will create a society of secrets:

 

• Any state agency, government department, even a parastatal and your local municipality, can classify public information as secret.

• Anything and everything can potentially be classified as secret at official discretion if it is in the ‘national interest’. Even ordinary information relating to service delivery can become secret.

• Commercial information can be made secret, making it very difficult to hold business and government to account for inefficiency and corruption.

• Anyone involved in the ‘unauthorized’ handling and disclosure of classified information can be prosecuted; not just the state official who leaks information as is the case in other democracies.

• The disclosure even of some information which is not formally classified can land citizens in jail. This will lead to self-censorship and have a chilling effect on free speech.

• Whistleblowers and journalists could face more time in prison than officials who deliberately conceal public information that should be disclosed.

• A complete veil is drawn over the workings of the intelligence services. It will prevent public scrutiny of our spies should they abuse their power or breach human rights.

 

Who will guard the guardians?

 

• Officials do not need to provide reason for making information secret

• There is no independent oversight mechanism to prevent information in the public interest from being made secret.       


• The Minister of State Security, whose business is secrecy, becomes the arbiter of what information across all of government must remain secret or may be disclosed to the public.

• Even the leaking of secret information in the public interest is criminalized.

• Unusually severe penalties of up to 25 years in prison will silence whistleblowers, civil society and journalists doing their job.       


• All these factors will limit public scrutiny of business and government, whether through Parliament or journalists. Accountability will be curtailed and service delivery to the people will be undermined.

 

Our demands:

 

The Constitution demands accountable, open and responsive government, realized among other things through freedom of expression and access to information. Our elected representatives are bound by these Constitutional values and any legislation they pass must comply. We demand that the Protection of Information Bill - the Secrecy Bill - must reflect the following:

 

1.     Limit secrecy to core state bodies in the security sector such as the police, defense and intelligence agencies.

2.     Limit secrecy to strictly defined national security matters and no more. Officials must give reasons for making information secret.

3.     Exclude commercial information from this Bill.    

4.     Do not exempt the intelligence agencies from public scrutiny.

5.     Do not apply penalties for unauthorized disclosure to society at large, only those responsible for keeping secrets.

6.     An independent body appointed by Parliament, and not the Minister of Intelligence, should be the arbiter of decisions about what may be made secret.

7.     Do not criminalize the legitimate disclosure of secrets in the public interest.