No excuse for publishing classified info will be tolerated: ANC

31 August 2011 - 19:01 By Anna Majavu: Politics LIVE
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The ANC says no one will be allowed to publish leaked classified information, even if that would prevent corruption or a looming disaster from happening.

During discussions in parliament this afternoon on the Protection of Information Bill, the ANC’s final decision on the plea for a “public interest defence” was a resounding "no".

It would not accept that there were any exceptional circumstances under which classified information could be disclosed in the public interest, and it accused the DA of wanting to protect journalists.

“The crisp position is that both proposals seek to protect journalists. That is quite obvious, and essentially what members of the opposition have been saying is that a journalist coming into possession of a classified document must be allowed to publish it regardless," said ANC MP Luwellyn Landers.

Landers then argued that Raymond Louw, of the SA National Editors Forum, had appeared before parliament’s justice committee earlier in the year and had argued against special exemptions for the media.

According to Landers, Louw said “the basic principle of journalism is that journalists had neither any extra powers nor any lesser powers than the ordinary individual” and that journalists were not in a class of their own.

But ACDP MP Steve Swart cautioned the ANC that if it did not change this clause in the bill, the first journalist who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for disclosing state information would rush straight to the Constitutional Court, which was likely to then throw out the law entirely.

DA MP David Maynier said that, in fact, journalists who published classified information willy-nilly could still be prosecuted. His party only wanted to protect those who revealed classified information in the public interest.

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