South African Court Bans Independent Media Outlets From Publishing Leaked Intelligence Report pressfreedom: SouthAfrica
On October 5, Gauteng High Court judge Daisy Sekao Molefe issued a final order banning the Daily News newspaper and Independent Online news website from publishing a leaked November 5, 2020 intelligence report marked"secret" by South Africa's State Security Agency and ordered that all copies of the document in Daily News reporter Thabo Makwakwa's possession be returned to the agency, according to a statement by IOL and a tweet by Anton Harber, the executive director of local...
However, the court order has not been made public, contrary to the international legal principle of open justice whereby court processes and records should as a general rule be transparent and open to the public and as of Thursday, October 13, neither Harber nor CPJ had been able to obtain a copy of the judgment from the judge's office and the court registrar.
Harber told CPJ via messaging app that he called the judge's office on October 6 requesting a copy but the judge's clerk told him that she had been instructed not to release it. He said that a formal request sent via his lawyer to the judge on October 7 also received no response.
Independent Media, which owns Daily News and IOL, and Makwakwa will appeal the judgment, according to the IOL statement. "In the spirit of open justice, the court ruling banning the publication of this intelligence report must be made public immediately," said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal, in New York."An appeals court must reverse this ruling regarding a publication that is a matter of public interest, especially when information appears to have been classified incorrectly or exposes criminal activity.
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