South Africa: Review panel for Info bill

The Protection of Information Bill is back in the spotlight in parliament, with the focus on a new panel that will have the power to decide if information has been wrongly classified. The proposed law - dubbed 'the secrecy bill' - has been widely criticised for giving the state wide powers to classify information, and for punishing people who publish that classified information, even if it is in the public interest. Opposition parties and civil society groups say a key problem in the bill remains: it provides for information to be classified in the interests of 'national security' but it is not clear what exactly national security is.