South Africa media freedom in South Africa in 2014 include the Protection of State Information Bill (dubbed the “Secrecy Bill”), National Key Points Act and the General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill (known as the “Spy Bill”). ... [the “Secrecy Bill’s”] offences and penalties do not sufficiently take into account the fact that in a democratic society, information should be disclosed if it is in the public interest. The controversial “Secrecy Bill”, which we also reported on in 2013, was not signed into law in 2014. Some civil society concerns were incorporated into the revised Bill, adopted by the National Assembly on 12 November 2013, but it still poses a serious threat to media freedom in South Africa, with each of the “Secrecy Bill” offences carrying a possible or mandatory prison term. If enacted, it is feared this law would be open to broad interpretation and abuse due to vague and ambiguous language regarding: the definition of “national security matters”; how information is possessed and communicated, for example stating that a person ought to reasonably know whether or not information would benefit a state and therefore affect na- 52 So This is Democracy? 2014 tional security; and the lack of distinction between public servants, the media and the public when it comes to applying offenses or penalties. In addition, the Bill’s offences and penalties do not sufficiently take into account the fact that in a democratic society, information should be disclosed if it is in the public interest. A public interest defence clause, therefore, must be included in the Bill to increase the media’s ability to combat corruption. The government must therefore send this bill to the Constitutional Court for ratification before signing it into law. The General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill – or the “Spy Bill” – is also yet to be passed. This Bill echoes a global trend of governments increasing monitoring in the name of national security. In its current form, the Bill does not contain the necessary checks and balances to prevent the government from spying on citizens, including journalists. The National Key Points Act is an apartheid-era law that prevents publishing security arrangements at strategic installation points called “national key points.” For example, key points, which are described as places deemed by the Minister of Defence to be so important that their loss, damage, disruption or immobilisation may prejudice the Republic, may include banks, munitions industries and water, air and electricity industries. However, we say “may include” because the government has refused to release a list of national key points. Therefore, this Act allows the government to declare any building a key point and on this basis, to refuse access to information about that building. When spending details on the claimed “security upgrades’’ for President Zuma’s Nkandla lodge were requested in