The South African Protection of State Information Bill, which was previously entitled the Protection of Information Bill and frequently represented as the Secrecy Bill, is a legal document formulated to regulate the preservation, classification and proclamation of state information. During the process of designing this bill, certain matters were taken into consideration – this being the significance of media in democracy and intending to balance it out with critical affairs of national security. The Secrecy Bill is to supersede the Protection of State Information Act, 1982, which controlled these contentions. This legislation is highly controversial and could suppress freedom of [removed]News24, 2011).
Tension between the need for openness and the desire for secrecy has always been in existence and always will. The public has a rightful interest in being routinely informed of the activities and ventures concerning the government, while government has a rightful interest in suppression of information in certain state of affairs. It is an ongoing debate regarding the Secrecy Bill – if there could be equilibrium where freedom to information and protection of information could meet each other half way. The public has always had the rightful access to information and to be aware of most ventures regarding South Africa and its government. As time passes, the amount of information that we have access to is decreasing and due to the passing and signing of the secrecy bill, information is restricted and is if it is released it is most likely manipulated and only that information that isn't harmful towards the government, would be released to the public. It is understandable that each and every government must in reality advocate and maintains a stratum of secrecy, but the continuous controversy has permanently been on the fulcrum that equalizes secrecy and civil liberty.
