{"id":821,"date":"2011-11-27T11:44:40","date_gmt":"2011-11-27T11:44:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/11\/%e2%80%98info-bill-will-silence-public-media%e2%80%99\/"},"modified":"2011-11-27T11:44:40","modified_gmt":"2011-11-27T11:44:40","slug":"info-bill-will-silence-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/11\/27\/info-bill-will-silence-public-media\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Info Bill will silence public, media\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div readability=\"8\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/polopoly_fs\/right2know-1.1077700!\/image\/862644904.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/box_300\/862644904.jpg\" alt=\"Right2Know\" title=\"\" class=\"pics\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Independent Newspapers<\/p>\n<p>Alan Storey stands in front of parliament protesting against the Information Bill. Photo: Neil Baynes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Protection of State Information Bill in its present form would not only silence the media, but also the general public, the Law Society of SA (LSSA) said on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe courts, to a large extent, remain the preserve of the wealthy and most ordinary citizens who become aware of corruption and maladministration will be silenced for life if the Bill goes unchallenged,\u201d said co-chairmen Nano Matlala and Praveen Sham.<\/p>\n<p>This jeopardised the legal profession as lawyers had the role of speaking for the public and standing up for public interest.<\/p>\n<p>The LSSA said it was distressed and disappointed that the bill was passed in the National Assembly last week.<\/p>\n<p>Matlala and Sham said the society would approach President Jacob Zuma to raise its concerns about the present draft of the bill being a threat to democracy.<\/p>\n<p>The Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba echoed these sentiments in an open letter to the president on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>In the letter, he recalled the \u201cundercurrent of fear running through our lives\u201d during apartheid, and raised his concerns that the bill could lead to a recurrence of this state.<\/p>\n<p>Both Makgoba and LSSA said they respected that state secrets should be classified, but a public interest defence clause had to be added in order to protect accountability and sustainable democracy.<\/p>\n<p>Makgoba concluded the letter with: \u201cAs a fellow South African and Christian, I ask you not to sign this bill. Listen again to the cries of your people\u201d. &#8211; Sapa<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>More:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/info-bill-will-silence-public-media-1.1187173\" title=\"\u2018Info Bill will silence public, media\u2019\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u2018Info Bill will silence public, media\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Independent Newspapers Alan Storey stands in front of parliament protesting against the Information Bill. Photo: Neil Baynes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u2018Info Bill will silence public, media\u2019 - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/11\/27\/info-bill-will-silence-public-media\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"\u2018Info Bill will silence public, media\u2019 - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Independent Newspapers Alan Storey stands in front of parliament protesting against the Information Bill. Photo: Neil Baynes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/polopoly_fs\/right2know-1.1077700!\/image\/862644904.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/box_300\/862644904.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/11\/27\/info-bill-will-silence-public-media\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/11\/27\/info-bill-will-silence-public-media\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"\u2018Info Bill will silence public, media\u2019\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-11-27T11:44:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/11\/27\/info-bill-will-silence-public-media\/\"},\"wordCount\":278,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/11\/27\/info-bill-will-silence-public-media\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/polopoly_fs\/right2know-1.1077700!\/image\/862644904.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/box_300\/862644904.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/11\/27\/info-bill-will-silence-public-media\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/11\/27\/info-bill-will-silence-public-media\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/11\/27\/info-bill-will-silence-public-media\/\",\"name\":\"\u2018Info Bill will silence public, media\u2019 - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/11\/27\/info-bill-will-silence-public-media\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/11\/27\/info-bill-will-silence-public-media\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/polopoly_fs\/right2know-1.1077700!\/image\/862644904.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/box_300\/862644904.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-11-27T11:44:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/11\/27\/info-bill-will-silence-public-media\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/11\/27\/info-bill-will-silence-public-media\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/polopoly_fs\/right2know-1.1077700!\/image\/862644904.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/box_300\/862644904.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/polopoly_fs\/right2know-1.1077700!\/image\/862644904.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/box_300\/862644904.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\u2018Info Bill will silence public, media\u2019 - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/11\/27\/info-bill-will-silence-public-media\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"\u2018Info Bill will silence public, media\u2019 - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"Independent Newspapers Alan Storey stands in front of parliament protesting against the Information Bill. 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