Silent march reminds that press freedom is constitutional

The march will start at 12.30pm on Tuesday 19 October 2010 from outside the University of the Witwatersrand's Senate House entrance in Jorissen Street, Braamfontein and go to Constitution Hill.

It marks the start of the week of action 19-27 October, when South Africans are called upon to support the campaign by holding meetings, pickets and protests in their communities to defend and uphold the public's right to know and right of access to information.

This is a national campaign and joint effort of a large number of civil society organisations, members of the public, students, academics, artist, journalists who have come together in defence of the public's right to know. The right to know and freedom of expression are crucial to a functioning democracy and entrench the principles of transparency, accountability and openness, which underpin our Constitution.

Demands

The Constitution demands accountable, open and responsive government, realised among other things through freedom of expression and access to information. Our elected representatives are bound by these constitutional values and any legislation they pass must comply with the Constitution.

The Right2Know campaign demands that the Protection of Information Bill - the Secrecy Bill - must reflect the following:

• Limit secrecy to core state bodies in the security sector such as the police, defense and intelligence agencies.
• Limit secrecy to strictly defined national security matters and no more. Officials must give reasons for making information secret.
• Exclude commercial information from this Bill.
• Do not exempt the intelligence agencies from public scrutiny.
• Do not apply penalties for unauthorised disclosure to society, only those responsible for keeping secrets.
• An independent body appointed by Parliament, and not the Minister of Intelligence, should be the arbiter of decisions about what may be made secret.
• Do not criminalise the legitimate disclosure of secrets in the public interest.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing," Edmund Burke