Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer accuses the ANC of apartheid-style censorship (in South Africa)

[alp227]

Source: The Observer

Nobel prize-winning author Nadine Gordimer has spoken out against her government's controversial new secrecy legislation, suggesting it is a move back towards the harsh censorship that existed under apartheid.

In an article written for the Observer, Gordimer said freedom of expression had been "struck out as a danger to the state", under the harsh Protection of State Information Bill, which may become law in South Africa by the end of the year. Leading commentators, editors and opposition parties dubbed the day the bill was passed in the South African parliament last week "Black Tuesday".

The bill bans the publication of classified documents – even if the information could be in the public interest – and allows the government to class almost any category of information as secret. Anyone involved in whistleblowing or any journalist or editor involved in publishing such information could face 25 years in prison. The bill is also seen as a way of the government controlling how it is represented, and there are worries that its provisions are so all-encompassing that it could even curtail freedom of expression in literature.

Gordimer argues that the attack on media freedom is an attack on everyone's "right to know and think", which would affect the work of all writers. ANC politicians have said the laws are necessary because the country is under threat from "spies" and foreign invasion, while state security minister Siyabonga Cwele has claimed that groups opposing the bill were "local proxies of foreign spies".

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/27/nadine-gordimer-south-africa-anc-secrecy-law-censorship

[tabatha]

1. Yes, that is a sad fact. However, there may be some remedies.

Should the NCOP fail to order a public interest clause to be introduced into the proposed legislation, "it can still be sent back to Parliament by President Jacob Zuma. And if that doesn't happen we can still take the legal route in order to get the Bill struck down," he said.

This would involve going to the Constitutional Court and arguing that the Bill does not accord with basic constitutional principles.

http://mg.co.za/article/2011-11-23-secrecy-bill-black-tuesday-not-the-end-of-road

[quakerboy]

2. Is South Africa

a hotbed of foreign spies, under constant threat of foreign invasion?