HIGHER EDUCATION SOUTH AFRICA MAKES A PLEA TO PARLIAMENT

Higher Education South Africa (HESA) issued a media statement on the Protection of State Information Bill on 23 February 2012. Below is an excerpt of the statement referring to the impact of the Bill on research , teaching and learning:

As the South African National Council of Provinces considers this Bill, Higher Education South Africa (HESA) urges parliamentarians to reject the Protection of State Information Bill in its current form.  The South African Constitution protects the right to academic freedom as part of freedom of expression. To enjoy this freedom, there is a need for free access to and dissemination of information. In spite of the fact that the Protection of State Information Bill has undergone many positive changes, the Bill still threatens these rights in various ways.  Not only could the Bill potentially limit the ability of academics to engage in teaching and research on legitimate subjects, but it also threatens information flow in society generally about security matters.

The Bill will make research into aspects of the security cluster (Defence, Police and Intelligence) extremely difficult. Any research that is in the public interest, but that is based on leaked classified information will be criminalized and the researcher could be arrested for failing to report possession of classified information, given the vague grounds for classification and still overbroad definition of national security.

Knowledge production about strategic issues facing the security cluster (the role of the police, intelligence sector and the military) in society will become more difficult. Universities have a role to play in democratizing knowledge to improve society. If they cannot obtain access to the information necessary to generate this knowledge, then society will be the poorer for it.

While we acknowledge that there is information that should be kept secret to protect national security – especially operational information – we feel that the Bill sets the bar for access to information far too low for our comfort.