The success of South Africa’s Constitution and the right of citizens to demand justification for government’s actions are being threatened by the disputed Protection of Information Bill (POIB), says media monitoring organisation Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) director William Bird.

The Bill will allow State institutions to classify information to keep it out of the public domain. The Bill will also allow for the protection of State information against unlawful alteration, destruction or loss.

While the Bill acknowledges the basic human right of access to information, it provides State entities with the power to classify any information. “This could possibly lead to the unseen consequence of officials abusing this power,” says Bird.

He believes that the implementation of the Bill is not a sign of a government acting from a position of strength and support from the people, but rather that a select few within government are acting under pressure and out of fear of their illicit activities being uncovered.

Bird notes that there are many public servants within the ruling African National Congress (ANC) who are working hard to achieve milestones in service delivery. “However, there is a minority within the ANC who feel threatened by the media, which is working to uncover their inappropriate actions. It is they who are trying to impose these ridiculous ideas on the majority.

“If this Bill is passed, it will see South Africa’s media freedom, and access to information more generally, heavily restricted, taking the country’s democracy ten steps backwards,” Bird explains.

He says that the implementation of the Bill will also likely result in an upsurge of public protests from the marginalised, who will become more marginalised as their access to information is denied, owing to the classification of information.

The Bill will also put the credibility of the entire State in question and honest Ministers will be brought into disrepute because, once information is made secret, the public will not trust what the government says and the assumption will always be that information is being hidden.

Bird does, however, agree with government that the current Protection of Information Bill, of 1982, needs to be amended as it is from the apartheid era and needs an update. However, the new version needs to increase openness and transparency with only exceptional information being classified.

A significant threat to media freedom in South Africa and the rest of Africa is that many Southern African countries act in accordance with South Africa’s laws.

Before the South African government announced the POIB and the appeal for a statutory media appeals tri- bunal, Zambia was in the pro- cess of implementing a self- regulatory approach to the media. However, it has put this on hold to first see what action South Africa would take.

“This is concerning as many African countries do not have media freedom and, if South Africa takes actions to restrict its media, many Southern African countries will follow,” notes Bird.

Further, the idea of regulating and prohibiting individuals from accessing information is becoming obsolete with the advances of technological media, Bird says.

Information can be uploaded onto the Internet and the trail can be covered to the extent that government will not be able to trace the source. Therefore, Bird believes that governments that attempt to regulate media will not be successful, as the methods of controlling online media are limited.

“Technological advances in the media are exciting and force people to investigate various ways of working with new media forms, as well as the impacts that these will have on citizens – parti- cularly in countries under oppres- sive regimes,” Bird explains.

Meanwhile, he suggests that all citizens of South Africa oppose the POIB as it concerns their rights as well, and urges citizens to sign any petitions against the implementation of the Bill.