A journalist who worked during the press censorship of the apartheid years has urged the government not take the same censorship decisions as the previous regime.
Veteran journalist Alistair Sparks was responding to the proposed restriction to Access of Information Bill. If passed it will give the government the power to restrict media and public access to information it deems ’sensitive’. But the local media industry has been outraged, saying the bill would give corrupt politicians the power to bury evidence which could expose them. Sparks said the proposed restrictions are reminiscent of the censorship laws of the apartheid government. “Obviously it is not in the national interest because simply having it and simply advertising the fact that we are thinking of having a law like this is doing far more damage to the country’s international image than ever anything that could be published here could possibly do,” said Sparks.
Source: Eye Witness News
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