The Right2Know Campaign (R2K) launched a Week of Action on October 19 – the commemoration of Black Wednesday – to demand: ‘Let the truth be known. Stop the Secrecy Bill!”
Black Wednesday was the day in 1977 when the apartheid state banned newspapers, anti-apartheid organisations and activists.
R2K was launched in August to oppose the Protection of Information Bill now before Parliament. If passed, says R2K, the Bill will ‘extend the veil of secrecy in a manner reminiscent of that same apartheid past”.
amaBhungane, a founder member of R2K, will be joining in the Week of Action, which commences on Tuesday October 19 with a silent march to Constitution Hill and culminates on Wednesday October 27 in a mass march to Parliament.
R2K’s founding statement – ‘Let the truth be told. Stop the Secrecy Bill!” – is supported by over 350 civil society organisations and 9 000 individuals, among them Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nadine Gordimer, Mazibuko Jara and Kader Asmal.
* Join the R2K Week of Action – full details below
* “Stop the Secrecy Bill” statement in full
* Sign on to the statement at the Right2Know website: www.right2know.org.za
* The Protection of Information Bill