The South African National Editors' Forum has urged parliament to include two crucial clauses in the Protection of State Information Bill as a mechanism to strike a balance between national security and transparency.
Lawyers for the forum yesterday appeared before the National Council of Provinces ad-hoc committee processing the proposed law, dubbed the secrecy bill by its opponents.
Lawyers Dario Milo and Okyerebea Ampofo-Anti said the introduction of both the public-interest defence and public-domain defence clauses were the best options to create a balance between the government's constitutional duty to ensure national security and not compromising the principles of transparency and accountability.
The public-interest defence would protect journalists and newspapers against possible lengthy jail terms for publishing classified information in a bid to advance the public good.
The public-domain defence would justify the possession of state secrets that had already been publicised by other sources.
Ampofo-Anti argued that the proposed measure would prevent the potential abuse of the powers to classify state information without justification.
"This balance will be correctly struck and the public interest and public domain defences in particular will counterbalance any potential for abuse in the classification regime and will also give effect to the values of accountability and transparency that were articulated," she said.
The bill was passed by the National Assembly in November and is now been considered by the National Council of Provinces.
The media, opposition parties, academic bodies and other lobby groups are vehemently opposed to the proposed legislation because they fear it will be used to stifle investigative journalism, thereby concealing state corruption.
As a remedy, the fourth estate is hoping the council will be sympathetic to its calls for public interest defence mechanisms in the bill.
Milo said had the bill been in force by last week, newspapers that published stories exposing tender irregularities in the SA Police Service and questionable promotions of VIP bodyguards close to President Jacob Zuma on Sunday would be now facing criminal charges.
The SA Human Rights Commission said the bill would "unduly limit the right to access to information" and would inhibit the work of the media.
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