Secrecy Bill and press freedom.
Currently we are able to read and see quite a bit of what is going on right here in South Africa as the press is reasonably free. We can also express our thoughts via the media as to what we think and what we know.
It seems that the Secrecy Bill might well make it into law curbing a lot of what we can write about, blog about or read. it has done the route through Parliament and now needs our president Jacob Zuma to sign it into law. I am sure he would be the first one to curb the media!
I came upon a paragraph which I sat musing about for quite some time. I had to agree that there should be no reason for people currently not knowing what is going on in South Africa, as we have a media which is allowed to report on what is wrong in our country. Under the National Party we had some serious censorship and were only allowed to read and see what they wanted us to. Today we have access to so many different Medias which increases our knowledge of happenings around us that would make Verwoerd and Vorster turn in their graves!
Yet the majority of people are like the proverbial ostrich, sticking their heads in the sand so that they don’t have to see or hear anything going on around them. (Ostriches don’t really do this, it’s an old wives tale! ) So if someone in the government decides that it isn’t in national interest to have some news report published they just have to say so and class it as not being of national interest and we will not hear of it.
Here is what I read
Many South Africans scuttled behind that refrain, post-apartheid. Draconian apartheid press laws lent a little credence to their stance, but those who wanted to know, did so. Today, so far, we have no excuse for not being cognisant of what’s going on, yet only those who read, watch and listen to a cross-section of the media are, it seems, fully conversant with the skulduggery stalking our land.
paulsmusing2 