Fishy law

HIDING behind a lot of verbiage, the preamble to the Protection of Information Bill, perhaps true to the wishes of the minds that concocted it, is a confusing piece of work.

While it purports to acknowledge "the harm of excessive secrecy", its sole objective is just that - to keep vital information away from the public.

That it "recognises the importance of information to the national security, territorial integrity and wellbeing of the Republic" is a euphemism for something more suspicious.

Only the apartheid-era Thought Police will understand how tightening the screws on dissemination of information can be misconstrued as an aim "to promote the free flow of information within an open and democratic society".

Enactment of the bill will indeed herald a sad day for investigative journalists and whistle-blowers.