gisw13_chapters

South AfricaWomen, secrecy, freedom of expression and access to informationRight2Know and Women’sNetCaroline Tagnywww.r2k.org.za and www.womensnet.org.zaIntroductionThe past three years in South Africa have been richin debates in the media and information landscape.More particularly the submission of the Protectionof State Information Bill, dubbed by activists asthe “Secrecy Bill”, has seen the creation of a multisectoralcampaign, rallying civil society groups andpress bodies demanding the “right to know”. On thepremise that strong democracy must be responsiveand accountable, and therefore must be transparentand guarantee the free flow of information, thecampaign has demanded that the bill be rewrittenin order to be in line with the values of the SouthAfrican constitution.The Right2Know campaign has developeda broad analysis of the media and informationlandscape over the past two years, simultaneouslyorganising its advocacy in terms of accessto telecommunications, and in particular mobilecommunications. Having inherited a telecommunicationsnetwork shaped by apartheid, whereformerly white areas were prioritised in terms ofservice delivery, South Africa, although one of themost connected countries in the sub-continent, stillfaces enormous challenges in terms of access tocommunications and information and communicationstechnologies (ICTs).This report is based on the experiences of theRight2Know campaign and attempts to questionthe implications of the Secrecy Bill as well as thecurrent communication landscape for women inSouth Africa.Policy and political backgroundDespite being the largest economy on the continent,more than half of the South African populationstill lives in poverty. Notwithstanding the efforts ofpost-1994 governments to redress social, economicand political inequalities, the country is still facingenormous disparities between rich and poor, adirect consequence and legacy of the apartheid regime,where access to social services, employmentand education were based on racial classification.According to Statistics South Africa, 56.8% of thepopulation lives in poverty, with women being moreimpoverished than men (58.6% for women, 54.9%for men). 1Aside from the various acts regulating ICTs andmedia, the past two years have seen information activistsincreasingly concerned with new legislationthat could potentially threaten the right to freedomof expression and access to information entrenchedin the post-apartheid South African Constitution –often seen as one of the most progressive in theworld.On freedom of expression, the constitutionstates that everyone has the right to freedom of expression,which includes:• Freedom of the press and other media• Freedom to receive or impart information andideas• Freedom of artistic creativity• Academic freedom and freedom of scientific research.And on the right of access to information, the constitutionestablishes that everyone has the right to:• Any information held by the state• Any information that is held by another personand that is required for the exercise or the protectionof any rights.The right to know and the Protection ofInformation BillThe Protection of Information Bill, published publiclyfor discussion in 2010, was drafted with theintent of keeping state secrets safe. However, as theRight2Know campaign has argued over the past twoyears, since its inception, the bill, which was passedin parliament at the beginning of 2013, has beenflawed in the way that it will impede the public fromaccessing crucial information under the guise of nationalsecurity. In effect the Bill now criminalises thepublic for possessing state information and poses1 beta2.statssa.gov.za/?page_id=739&id=1208 / Global Information Society Watch