Members of Parliament (MPs) redrafting the controversial Protection of Information Bill on Thursday have cemented an agreement that the State will not be allowed to classify commercial information nor use the vague notion of national interest to keep anything secret.

"This national interest was a sore point," Cecil Burgess, the chairperson of the ad hoc committee processing the bill, said of the outcry that prompted State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele to suggest that the clauses be removed.

"It is not that we have public hearings as some roadshow. It would be stupid to have a Parliamentary process and not to take seriously the things that were seriously motivated."

However, the African National Congress (ANC) indicated that they would not be prepared to heed calls from the media, rights activists, opposition parties and former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils to include a so-called public interest defence in the draft act.

It would protect whistleblowers and journalists who make public classified information to argue in court that they did so for the public good.

The absence of such a clause and the introduction of long prison sentences for those who contravened the legislation contributed to charges that it was an attempt to cover-up wrongdoing and silence criticism of government.

"No, we can forget about that. There is not going to be a public interest defence," ANC MP Llewellyn Landers told Sapa after taking the committee through the ruling party's proposed amendments.

He said that the ANC's suggestions on changing Section 38 of the draft act already covered calls for better protection for those who blew the whistle on corruption.

"The bill must be clearly aligned with the Protected Disclosures Act, the Companies Act, and other laws that serve to protect whistle blowers," the ANC document states.

"However, it is felt that in its current form, Clause 38 is inadequate, and must therefore be strengthened to achieve this end."

The ANC and opposition parties also butted heads on the ruling party's insistence, partly informed by the Operation Browse Mole report, that the bill must cover information peddling.

"It is not a dream ... It has become a real crisis now," Burgess said when Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Dene Smuts demanded a definition of information peddling.

"If you just take yourself back to the Browse Mole report you would understand what we are talking about ... the problems that our government had in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) area. That document had really alleged a whole lot of very nasty things and as a consequence our government suffered very heavy prejudice.

"I don't think it is an ANC thing - I think it is really one of the issues that go down to national security."

Like Smuts, Inkatha Freedom Party MP Mario Oriani-Ambrosini said that the crime must be defined in clear legal terms, or dropped from the bill.

"Information peddling is not a legal term that is known to me," Oriani-Ambrosini said.

"It could go from gloried gossiping to a campaign of misinformation. We need to engage in tying the language and, again, if we are to err, let's err on the side of not including things rather than very broad definitions which may undermine the freedom of dissemination of information."

The Browse Mole report claimed that there was a plot, supported by other African states, to overthrow the Thabo Mbeki Presidency and replace him with Jacob Zuma.

Parliament's joint standing committee on intelligence concluded that the drafters of the report had been influenced by so-called information peddlers.

The information bill is not expected to be concluded before Parliament rises later this month, to reconvene next year.