The South African government has announced a triple play to clamp down on media freedom in South Africa, a move which might force journalists to adopt the WikiLeaks model when it comes to publishing sensitive information.
Concern is mounting over the apartheid-inspired Protection of Information Bill, which will give government sweeping powers to declare virtually any information ‘in the national interest’ (and classify it), making it illegal for journalists to accept, possess, investigate or publish this information.
There is discussion of a government-sponsored media tribunal which would aim to adjudicate on cases brought against the media and finally there is the Criminal Procedure Act which is being amended to force journalists to disclose their confidential sources. At the moment, sadly, the debate around these proposed laws are happening in the media only rather than amongst citizens.
At the same time, the online world is abuzz with news of the massive intelligence leak suffered by the United States government when WikiLeaks published 90 000 internal US military logs relating to the war in Afghanistan. The leak proved the ineffectiveness of legislation designed to clamp down on the free flow of information and the press. The leak happened anonymously, on a global stage, and was covered by international media with the affected governments powerless to plug the leak.
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