21 Nov 2012 | Africa, South Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa
South Africa’s Right2Know Campaign (R2K) is “Camping out for Openness” outside parliament in Cape Town this week as deliberations over the draconian Protection of State Information Bill draw to a close.
The National Council of Provinces, the second house of parliament, is due to adopt the bill by the end of November. The bill is ostensibly aimed at instituting a long-overdue system to regulate access to government documents.
However, despite persistent appeals from, among others, luminaries such as Nobel Laureate Nadine Gordimer, the Secrecy Bill’s system of classification and declassification has not been couched in the country’s constitutional commitment to an open democracy and the free flow of information.
Instead it opens the door to the over-classification of state information while instituting harsh punishments for the possession of classified information, undermining basic citizenship rights.
Pressure from civil society, led by the R2K Campaign, produced limited concessions this year. One of the most pertinent demands was to include a public interest defence clause to ameliorate the anti-democratic effects of the bill. The ruling African National Congress (ANC) eventually conceded by allowing a clause enabling a public interest defence, but only if the disclosure revealed criminal activity. This has been criticised as an unreasonably high threshold.
Right2Know march in Pretoria, South Africa, September 2012. Jordi Matas | Demotix
The ANC this month backtracked on two other key concessions, as pressure from state security minister Siyabonga Cwele on ANC parliamentarians seemingly paid off:
- The Secrecy Bill at first took precedence over the Promotion of Access of Information Act (PAIA). PAIA allows citizens to request information from government agencies. The ANC then agreed to an amendment that would give PAIA precedence. This decision was again overturned after pressure from Cwele. Activists argue that allowing the Secrecy Bill to trump PAIA is unconstitutional, as PAIA is prescribed by the constitution and has to remain the supreme law in access to information matters.
- A five-year sentence for disclosing classified information has been reintroduced after the ANC agreed to have it removed. This will actively discourage whistleblowers in the civil service from coming forward with information revealing corruption.
Cwele’s predecessor, Ronnie Kasrils, this week addressed the R2K camp outside parliament, distancing himself from what he deemed the “devious” and “toxic” bill. While he was minister, he withdrew the 2008 version of the bill after a similar outcry about its lack of constitutionality.
According to R2K, the other remaining problems with the Secrecy Bill include:
- It criminalises citizens instead of holding to account civil servants who are responsible for keeping secrets.
- A whistleblower, journalist or activist disclosing classified information with the purpose of revealing corruption or other criminal activity can still be prosecuted under the “espionage” and related offences clauses to avoid them invoking the limited public interest defence.
- Persons in possession of classified state information face draconian jail terms of up to 25 years.
- The bill’s procedure to apply for the declassification of information conflicts with PAIA, while the newly created Classification Review Panel is not sufficiently independent: “The simple possession of classified information appears to be illegal even pending a request for declassification and access.”
- Someone can be prosecuted for “espionage”, “receiving state information unlawfully” (to benefit a foreign state), and “hostile activity” even without proof that the accused intended to benefit a foreign state or hostile group or prejudice national security — only that the accused knew this would be a “direct or indirect” result.
- Information classified under apartheid law and policies that may be counter to the constitution remain classified, pending a review for which no time limit is set.
Parliament’s engagement with the bill, which started in July 2010, has been characterised by Orwellian “doublethink”, as exemplified in Cwele’s declaration that “protect(ing) sensitive information … is the oil that lubricates our democracy and we have no intention — not today, not ever — to undermine the freedom we struggled and sacrificed for all these years”.
R2K has vowed to continue pressuring parliamentarians to replace the Secrecy Bill with a law “that genuinely reflects a just balance between the public’s right to know and [the] government’s need to protect limited state information”.
Christi van der Westhuizen is Index on Censorship’s new South Africa correspondent
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21 Nov 2012 | Egypt, Middle East and North Africa
The ideological battle for Egypt’s soul has intensified in recent weeks. Rising tensions threaten to polarise a country wracked by deep divisions over the role Islam will play in the “new” Egypt. Many of the revolutionary activists who participated in the January 2011 mass uprising envisioned the new Egypt as a secular, civil state. These hopes were dashed by Islamist victories in the post-revolution parliamentary and presidential elections. Islamists won about two-thirds of 508 seats in the parliamentary election at the end of last year — the Muslim Brotherhood won 38 per cent of seats, and the Salafist Al Nour party secured 29 per cent. As an Islamist-dominated assembly debates the country’s new constitution — a charter that will shape Egypt’s future — liberals fear that Egypt may evolve into an Iranian-style theocracy.
— Egyptian Salafists filled Tahrir Square earlier this month to demand that Sharia law be enshrined in the country’s constitution (Demotix)
Thousands of protesters filled Tahrir Square on 8 November to demand that Islamic Sharia law be enshrined in Egypt’s new constitution. Sharia has been the subject of heated debate among members of the panel engaged in drafting the constitution. Liberals favour preserving the wording of the 1971 Constitution which states that “the principles of Sharia are the basis of all legislation”. Hardline Islamists are demanding the wording be changed to declare that “the rulings of Sharia” law serve as the source of legislation. This more stringent interpretation of Islamic law would include implementing Hudood laws — a set of punishments under Islam’s Penal Law that include punishing theft by cutting off a hand, stonings for adultery, and death for apostates (former Muslims who reject the faith).
The inflexibility of Islamist members on the Constituent Assembly over this issue led liberal rights activist Manal El Tibi to resign from the assembly in September.
As the 12 December deadline for the document approaches, thirty liberal members of the 100-member assembly have quit in protest, complaining that their voices were being ignored by Islamist members determined to use the constitution to turn Egypt into an Islamic state. Representatives from Egypt’s churches also withdrew from the panel on Saturday, rejecting the idea of a “religious state”.
Salafists have wrangled with liberal assembly members over other articles of the draft charter, namely those on the role of Islamic institution Al Azhar (Liberals want to establish the 1,000-year-old Sunni institution as the only authority allowed to interpret Sharia), on women’s rights, and civil and religious freedoms. Liberals are concerned that a strict interpretation of Sharia may usher in restrictive policies for women, such as the imposition of an Islamic dress code, and forced segregation between men and women in public.
— Egyptian woman in Tahrir Square carries sign saying “our rights, now” during marches for women’s rights in Cairo’s Tahrir Square last year (Demotix)
Liberals hoped to eliminate all forms of gender-based discrimination in the new charter, but activist Ziad Ali says that the new charter “is a dismal compromise, which is no better than the previous (1971) constitution.” The draft constitution makes a patronising promise to “help women strike a balance between their family duties and their work in society”, — a pledge slammed by rights activists as “discriminatory” as it would make women second-class citizens.
While women’s rights have been the bone of contention in the constitutional debate, religious freedom too has been at the centre of the controversy. Article 8 on freedom of belief has been revised to read: “Freedom of belief is absolute and religious rights are to be practised if they do not disturb public order”. The added provision, “if they do not disturb public order”, has worried secularists who describe it as “restrictive”. The previous constitution simply stipulated that “the state shall guarantee the freedom of belief and the freedom of practice of religious rites”.
The draft constitution only recognises three religions — Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. According to Article 8, “The state shall ensure freedom to establish places of worship for adherents of Abrahamic religions in accordance with the law.” Adherents to non-Abrahamic faiths will be denied the right to build places of worship.
— Egyptian secularists rallied in Tahrir Square in October to protest against Islamist control of the country’s new constitution (Demotix)
Especially worrying are anti-blasphemy laws outlined in draft articles 40 and 38, which prohibit the “defamation of messengers and prophets”, without specifying what could be classed as “defamation”. The vague definition leaves room for wide interpretation of the law. The draft charter also does not outline what counts as “blasphemous”, making it unclear what would be punishable by law. “With no clear definitions, such laws may potentially threaten and restrict free speech”, complains Mona Makram Obeid, a liberal former MP.
While the draft constitution falls short in the realms of religious freedoms and women’s rights, it makes sizeable progress when it comes to press freedom. The draft includes draft articles safeguarding freedom of thought and expression — and if it is endorsed by a popular referendum next month — it would also protect the right of journalists to work freely through a ban on jail terms for publication offences. It would also allow for new media organisations to launch without restrictions.
While allowing more room for press freedom, the draft charter severely restricts freedoms in many realms, and its vague and ambiguous language opens the door to potentially harmful interpretations — making it a disappointment for some of the pro-reform activists who led last year’s protests in Tahrir Square.
“The Islamists have stolen the revolution. The new constitution is a far cry from the progressive, tolerant state that we had aspired to create”, says revolutionary activist Hazem Mahmoud, who works for the Ministry of Foreign Trade.
Whether or not the new Egypt with fit Mahmoud’s description, or become an Islamic state depends on who emerges as the stronger force in the constitutional battle: the ultra-conservative Islamists, or secular, liberal and pluralistic forces.
Journalist Shahira Amin resigned from her post as deputy head of state-run Nile TV in February 2011. Read why she resigned from the “propaganda machine” here.
20 Nov 2012 | Europe and Central Asia, Russia
In October a wave of censorship swept the Russian internet prior to the official introduction of a new federal internet blacklist law on 1 November.
Regional authorities targeted internet service providers to block access to websites featuring anti-Islamic, Islamist and Nazi material on the grounds that they were “extremist”. Regional prosecutors targeted websites that allowed access to the video The Innocence of Muslims, an amateur film that attracted Islamist protests worldwide. Regional prosecutors throughout Russia demanded that internet service providers block access to the film in early October. The video was subsequently declared extremist by a Moscow court in the middle of the month.
But prosecutors also targeted websites publishing texts as disparate as Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and a treatise by the medieval Islamic scholar Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, as well as right-wing Russian nationalist material. Among the victims of the trawl are websites run by Jehovah’s Witnesses and conspiracy theorists. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have also been told to block access to websites giving advice on how to commit suicide and promoting pyramid schemes.
The new national register of banned websites set up by the Federal Service for Supervision of Telecoms, Information Technologies and Mass Communications (Roskomnadzor) has the power to make ISPs block access to websites within three days.
Check back in December for the full list of what was censored in November.
Literature
16 October Stavropol court restricts access to electronic version of late Russian nationalist historian Yuri Petukhov’s The Russian World Order.
17 October Tver prosecutor announces that website is making available Hitler’s Black Guard, which is on a federal extremist list, and tries (unsuccessfully) to block the website.
18 October Perm prosecutor successfully demands the blocking of websites publishing Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
24 October Liven prosecutor demands block on ISPs hosting of work of nationalist writer Oray Volot.
Suicide
10 October Stavropol prosecutor demands that ISPs stop access to websites giving advice on how to commit suicide.
20 October Russian supreme court upholds Rostov prosecutor’s 2011 demand that an ISP stops access to websites giving advice on how to commit suicide.
Drugs
18 October Samara court moves against “legal highs” websites.
15 October Surgat court starts action to prevent the sale of “legal high” drugs online.
22 October Orel prosecutor tries to make an ISP block access to the Wikipedia page on “Russian obscenities” and website advocating use of laughing gas.
Extremism
1 October-17 October Warnings issued by prosecutors in Astrakhan, Kaluga, Kostroma, Tomsk, Krasnodar, Mordovia, the Jewish Autonomous Region, Samara, Bashkiria, Bashkortostan, Tula, Ivanovo to ISPs providing access to The Innocence of Muslims.
1 October Ipatovsk prosecutor blocks the website publishing text of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali’s Council for Kings, a medieval theological treatise included on the federal list of extremist materials.
1 October Ivanovo prosecutor identifies two Jehovah’s Witnesses’ websites as extremist and issues a warning to an ISP.
3 October Altai prosecutor blocks access to lib.rus.ec internet library on grounds of extremist content.
11 October Vladivostok prosecutor orders ISPs to block access to an allegedly anti-Semitic leaflet.
11 October Irkutsk prosecutor blocks access to an “extremist” website.
15 October Ufa prosecutor starts cases against educational institutions supposedly allowing access to “extremist” materials.
17 October Moscow court declares The Innocence of Muslims to be extremist.
17 October Belgorod prosecutor demands that an ISP restricts access to 14 sites carrying extremist materials.
22 October North Ossetia prosecutor demands ISPs restrict access to 33 sites containing “extremist” texts.
22 October Saratov prosecutor demands 20 ISPs restrict access to “extremist” material.
23 October Nenets prosecutor demands ISPs block access to nationalist websites.
25 October St Petersburg prosecutors demand ISPs restrict access to extremist websites.
Finance
10 October Nefteyugansk prosecutor demands an ISP stops access to financial services websites it alleges are pyramid schemes.
12 October Tomsk prosecutor demands an ISP stops access to a pyramid scheme website.
Source: Agentura.Ru
Andrei Soldatov is a Russian journalist, and together with Irina Borogan, co-founder of the Agentura.Ru website. Last year, Soldatov and Borogan co-authored The New Nobility: The Restoration of Russia’s Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB (PublicAffairs)
20 Nov 2012 | Europe and Central Asia
Journalists and activists were arrested and brutally attacked on Saturday, 17 November during an opposition protest in the Azerbaijani capital Baku.
Despite wearing clearly-marked press jackets, a number of independent reporters were assaulted, including Yeni Musavat newspaper correspondent Farahim Ilgaroglu, Turan Information Agency eporter Etimad Budagov, Media Forum correspondent Amid Suleymanov and Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS) correspondent Rasim Aliyev.
17 Nov Baku – Activists and journalists are arrested during protest (IRFS)
There were also reports that those trying to photograph or video the protest were prevented from doing so — either through intimidation or direct violence. According to some reports, up to 30 opposition activists were arrested.
As part of its commitments to a number of human rights treaties including the European Convention on Human Rights, Azerbaijan must respect its citizens’ right to peaceful assembly. The reality is. different and opposition protests must be sanctioned before going ahead. Earlier this month, on 2 November, parliament accepted amendments that mean the fine for engaging in an illegal protest will substantially increase.
The incident followed the end of the week-long Internet Governance Forum in the Baku, which brought together government officials, technology industry leaders and civil society groups. Though prominent journalists Emin Milli (a former political prisoner) and Khadija Ismayilova (a victim of a blackmail attempt) took part in the forum, many saw this as a PR move designed to give the impression that the government is adopting a more tolerant attitude towards critical voices. This weekend’s events clearly demonstrate this is not the case — authorities have no intention of changing the way they deal with opposition activists. Neelie Kroes of the EU Commission tweeted:
Baku-based Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS) has condemned the attack on Azerbaijan’s independent media, and there have been calls for the government to conduct an immediate investigation.
You can find more about the human rights situation on Index’s Azerbaijan: Access Denied page
